DALEVILLE, Va. – Residents of Botetourt County gathered for the first community meeting since Google officially announced plans to build a data center in the area, filling the room to review facts and map out a path forward.
The meeting’s goal was to spread the word and inform the public. Topics included the project timeline, the amount of money involved, a statewide sales tax exemption for data centers, and concerns about light and noise emissions. Residents also raised issues about the facility’s proximity to a school, a perceived lack of transparency from the county’s Board of Supervisors, and how much water and electricity the campus would consume.
“The masses need to come out to the next meeting and future meetings to help prevent this Google data center from coming into Botetourt County,” said Pam Dotson, a Fincastle resident.
Botetourt County resident and real estate agent Danny Goad said the community has been doing its homework.
“Doing a whole lot of digging and some due diligence, engineering calculations, we’ve been able to come up with a pretty good idea of what they’re planning on,” Goad said.
Ben Verschoor, an organizer with the Southwest Data Center Transparency Alliance, encouraged residents who oppose the project to stay engaged.
“It’s not over until it’s over,” Verschoor said. “They’re not even through the permitting process yet, so one of the things that these kind of meetings do is let people know who are against it that they’re not alone.”
What comes next
With the project still working through permitting, residents are weighing several strategies to slow or stop it. Some are discussing recalling members of the Board of Supervisors, while others are considering legal action to delay the project and its permits.
One immediate strategy involves submitting public comments to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before a Thursday, April 9th deadline in an effort to block the agency’s approval and ultimately delay the project. The data center is under a project titled “Project Raspberry”. To submit a comment, residents can visit the Corps of Engineers’ public notice page, type “RASP” in the search box and fill out the comments form.
Residents are also putting pressure on Virginia’s General Assembly to end the statewide sales tax exemption for data centers — a provision currently being debated as lawmakers work to finalize next year’s budget. The General Assembly is set to reconvene April 22, giving residents a window to contact their representatives before then.
“I think we have to take a multi-prong approach,” Goad said.
Verschoor echoed that sentiment, emphasizing that no option has been ruled out.
“Nothing is necessarily off the table,” he said. “It’s just a matter of — is it the right strategy? Do we have grounds for it?”
Dotson said hearing others voice similar concerns has been energizing.
“When you hear other people voicing the same concerns and similar concerns, it definitely has an impact on the overall feeling if you can be successful in trying to beat something like this,” she said.
The packed meeting made clear that residents are not ready to give up.