Franklin County residents will come together Sunday as they search for answers after discovering the county is likely in negotiations to bring in a data center.
Vocal disapproval from the community has come in person and online. At last month's county board of supervisors meeting, well over 200 residents attended to criticize the actions of their representatives.
On Sunday, many of those same local residents will be hosting a community meeting at the Scruggs Volunteer Fire Department in Moneta at 3 p.m. Christine Sizemore with the Franklin County Community Coalition said the meeting will give residents the opportunity to share what they know about the proposed data center and also discuss next steps.
Sizemore said a back and forth between residents and the county has been lacking since documents outlining discussions to bring a data center to Franklin County were discovered in a Freedom of Information Act request. More than 40 residents spoke in the public comment period at last month's board meeting to protest a data center coming to the county.
None of the supervisors answered any of the questions asked by speakers, which is not uncommon during the public comment period.
"The meeting is really there for the community to interact, and hopefully amongst all of us, have some of the questions answered," Sizemore said.
What is 'Project Flash?'
The proposed data center is seemingly connected to something listed as "Project Flash" in county documents obtained through FOIA requests. The documents show discussions between county officials and representatives of data center developer Crusoe ongoing since November.
The documents were discovered when residents made FOIA requests to obtain county information on a planned zoning ordinance rewrite. Project Flash was listed in those documents, leading residents to push for more information.
No Franklin County supervisors or staff have provided any information on any negotiations to bring a data center to the county. No one in the county has commented on Project Flash or any dealings with the developer.
While there have been no public statements on Project Flash, supervisors did say last month that they intend to have work sessions in the future on the potential impact of data centers. During the meeting, Blue Ridge District representative Tim Tatum also announced he would vote against any future data center.
Blackwater District representative Mike Meredith posted on Facebook the day after the meeting that he also would not support a data center.
Why all the secrecy?
The secrecy around a potential data center in Franklin County is most likely due to the rules when it comes to bringing businesses to the county-owned Summit View Business Park. The industrial park is the likely location of the potential data center.
Franklin County, like others in Virginia negotiating bringing businesses to industrial parks, often sign non-disclosure agreements that prevent information getting out to the public. Documents reveal that Franklin County staff is likely under an NDA, preventing any discussion with the public.
Franklin County Economic Development Director Danielle Poe said the county works with partners such as the Roanoke Regional Partnership and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to assist in connecting with potential businesses for Summit View. She added that potential businesses ask for an NDA as part of negotiations, sometimes established between partners before even connecting with Franklin County.
"Most projects are going to ask for an NDA before they would share any specific information," Poe said.
Large-scale businesses will often look at potential industrial parks around the state for one that fits specific criteria they have. Many discussions with potential businesses don't go beyond the initial stage, Poe said, as Summit View may not fit what they need.
"Typically you will know a broad stroke of the type of industry, but you don't know any of the specifics," she said. "If we were to make it past a certain point, they are going to start asking for additional information on the site. So then you start having more targeted conversations about what their needs are and what we can fulfill based on those needs."
With potential businesses working with the VEDP, Poe said confidentiality is required throughout the recruitment process. If a company selects Franklin County, no public announcement can be made until the governor's office issues an official project announcement. Following the announcement, county supervisors consider any required performance agreement and related public actions during an open meeting.
"For projects that do not involve VEDP or state-supported incentives, information is generally made public when board action is required, when a public hearing is necessary or when the board of supervisors determines it is appropriate to make a public announcement," Poe said.
Franklin County Administrator Steve Sandy said prospective businesses will often have discussions with staff early on in the process. Some of those discussions never reach the board of supervisors as they do not get that far into the recruitment process.
"Once we have some more definitive concrete information, that is presented to the board and the board is made aware," Sandy said. "But it is not presented until we have actual information."
What to know about the location
Summit View is Franklin County's newest business park. It began development in 2017 following the purchase of property near U.S. 220 just north of Rocky Mount. Work is still ongoing at the park, with the county investing more than $50 million into the project.
So far, two businesses have located to Summit View in recent years. They include Stik-Pak solutions, which packages powdered food products, and ValleyStar Credit Union's administrative building.
A third business, Traditional Medicinals, is currently under construction. It is expected to be completed this fall.
Summit View Business Park is the only property in Franklin County that is zoned for a data center. One could be constructed in the unzoned areas in the southern end of the county because there are no rules in place to stop one, but Tatum has discussed creating additional county rules to prevent them there.
While not speaking on the specifics of data centers, Sandy said owning Summit View allows the county to control what is built at the business park. The county can require parameters the business must follow, such as landscape buffers or limits on the amount of noise created.
Jobs and tax revenue
Sandy also said one of the goals in trying to bring new businesses to Summit View Business Park is to provide jobs with quality wages. Stik Pak currently has 172 employees and ValleyStar has 37. Traditional Medicinals anticipates creating 57 jobs.
Another goal, Sandy said, is to provide revenue for the county from real estate and property taxes. That tax revenue can be substantial depending on the size of the business and some of the machinery it uses.
The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, which conducts program evaluation, policy analysis and oversight of state agencies on behalf of the Virginia General Assembly, conducted a study in 2023 to review the impacts of the state's data center industry. That study found the biggest benefit to a locality would likely be from tax revenue.
Mark Gribbin, JLARC chief legislative analyst, said personal property taxes provide the biggest revenue for localities. Computer equipment valued in the millions and typically replaced every five years can provide significant revenue.
In Loudoun County, JLARC reports, more than 30% of total revenue comes from taxes collected from data centers. That has led the county to lower its real estate tax rate, benefiting residents.
Henrico County developed an affordable housing trust fund with its data center revenue, and Mecklenburg County funded the construction of new schools, according to the JLARC report.
What about energy and water use?
While data center development has seen substantial growth in Northern Virginia, the JLARC study suggests there are specific requirements that may prevent their growth in Southwest Virginia.
Data centers likely need 230kV transmission lines and large, flat properties close to those transmission lines, though some documents suggest the proposed data center in Franklin County may use the natural gas from the Mountain Valley Pipeline to provide power.
If the data center runs off natural gas, it would require a turbine to convert the gas into electricity. Those turbines can be loud and produce an odor that could have an impact on nearby residents, Gribbin said.
"These are industrial facilities, they should not be sited close to residential areas," he said.
The JLARC study shows data centers have a high electricity demand that can potentially impact energy costs. The use of natural gas may prevent some of that demand.
Water use has been another concern with data centers. The JLARC study found that many data centers use the same amount of water as an average large office building.
"We didn't find that, on a per facility basis, they were really using a lot of water," Gribbin said, adding that things could have changed since the study was completed in 2023.
Franklin County residents want a voice
While studies such as JLARC's present potential positive and negative impacts to localities, Sizemore said she would like to see Franklin County residents have the opportunity to make their own decision on any potential data center. Supervisors and county staff are currently not providing residents with any information on any ongoing data center negotiations, she said.
Sizemore called for negotiations to be more public between any potential data centers and the county. She said many in the community are against any data center coming to the county, but would prefer learning about the project from county leaders rather than being in the dark.
One consideration Sizemore said she would like to see is the county requiring a special use permit to construct a data center at the business park. That would force the county to hold a public hearing with information provided to the public and input from citizens before supervisors could vote on the project.
"We need more safeguards in place, because right now the regulations for data centers is absolutely minimal in Franklin County," Sizemore said.
