After Alexandria’s mayor and City Council spoke out against an electric substation for a data center development near the city, some elected officials joined a march against data centers.
On Saturday (Oct. 10), residents and community groups marched from Aslin Beer Company in Alexandria’s West End to the nearby Plaza 500 site in Lincolnia where a data center campus is planned.
The event in Alexandria kicked off a two-week March for a Moratorium to call on state leaders to pause new data center development in Virginia. Advocates want lawmakers to use the pause to evaluate data center impacts on the electric grid, water resources, land use and nearby communities, as well as establish protections for local residents.
Sponsors of the event included CCAN Action Fund, Nature Forward, La ColectiVA, Third Act Virginia, Mothers Out Front VA, Sierra Club Virginia Chapter, Virginia League of Conservation Voters and Friends of Holmes Run, and the Save Bren Mar Coalition also participated.
Along with opposing new data center development statewide, participants in the March for a Moratorium spoke out against the Plaza 500 proposal. The data center project led by Starwood Capital Group is allowed by right under the county’s zoning rules, as it was grandfathered under Fairfax County’s more restrictive data center ordinance.
However, Dominion Energy’s electric substation must undergo a public facilities 2232 review by the Fairfax County Planning Commission. The Planning Commission’s public hearing, originally scheduled for September, has been moved to 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 2. The State Corporation Commission has already approved nearly a mile of new transmission lines between the proposed Edsall Road substation and existing Van Dorn substation.
Alexandria Councilman Abdel Elnoubi told ALXnow the march had a notable turnout. Elnoubi, Councilman Canek Aguirre and Councilwoman Sandy Marks attended the march.
“There’s a good amount of people who are against and who this would impact, and it seems like there’s a good amount of organizing going on around the issue right now,” Elnoubi said.
Aguirre also shared opposition to the Plaza 500 project.
“Data centers should not be by-right development,” Aguirre shared on Facebook. “They should not be near people, they should not be taking our precious natural resources, they should not be raising our utility rates and they have no place being near one of the most densely populated sections of our community.”
The resident-led Save Bren Mar coalition has been opposing the Plaza 500 data center development for years, raising concerns about transparency, environmental impacts, and proximity to homes and the Metro. Residents are calling for the Planning Commission to deny the substation, what they see as the only chance for public review of the data center project.
“The Plaza 500 proposal exposes the full danger of unchecked data center expansion,” said Tyler Ray, Founder of the Save Bren Mar Coalition. “We need an immediate moratorium so state and local leaders can establish tough guardrails. Approving projects of this scale by right without public hearings cannot stand.”
Elnoubi said he and other Alexandria elected officials have been reaching out to Fairfax County counterparts to express concerns with Plaza 500. Elnoubi was also a speaker at Alexandria People’s Assembly’s Beatley Library forum on the Plaza 500 proposal.
Not long after the forum, Alexandria’s Watergate at Landmark condominium community not far from the Plaza 500 site held a town hall. Elnoubi used to live at the community and said it would be the city’s residential development most impacted by the data center campus.
“I’m hearing a lot of concerns from residents, especially residents on the West End and residents who are in proximity to the data center,” the councilman said. “People are concerned about the environment and the environmental impact, especially with the backup diesel generator. People are worried about water consumption and the impact on the water, and also noise concerns from the generator, and about the inaudible noise and the humming noise that can come from the substation, and the humming noise that could come from the data center itself.”
At City Council’s Sept. 22 legislative session with Alexandria’s General Assembly delegation, Elnoubi called for state legislation allowing localities to have a say if a data center is planned near their border in another locality.
“Right now we don’t have any authority over this,” Elnoubi said. “It’s surface authority, but it impacts us and our residents.”
Last month, Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) announced a new framework to regulate data centers. The governor’s directive seeks to review noise regulations and backup power generators and establish guidelines for grid reliability. The governor also called for the creation of an AI task force and will push for the Virginia General Assembly to adopt the new data center standards during its 2027 session.
If the Edsall Road substation gets approved, Elnoubi said he’d be interested in exploring legal options available to the city to fight the Plaza 500 development.
Image 2 via Canek Aguirre for Alexandria City Council/Facebook
