LETTER: Secrecy around proposed Amazon data center continues

The Fauquier Times Oct. 5 front-page article (“Data centers’ secrecy often keep residents in the dark”) disclosed the secrecy surrounding Amazon’s involvement in instigating changes to the Town of Warrenton’s plans for future growth. Amazon’s data center plans hinged on approval of the zoning text amendment, and after Amazon’s attorneys coordinated with staff as staff wrote the amendment, several Amazon employees traveled to Warrenton to meet with the members of the planning commission, town council members and Mayor Carter Nevill to “ensure their support” for the text amendment.

Amazon requested meeting with no more than two officials at a time – more than that would have triggered a public notice requirement. Amazon informed the officials they were in the due diligence study phase of the purchase of the Weissberg property and were “seeking some assurances” prior to closing. They provided preliminary details of the data center planned for the property.

Town Council unanimously approved the data center text amendment on Aug. 10, 2021, and Amazon closed on the property on Sept. 20, 2021, but Amazon still needs Town Council’s approval of a special use permit application (SUP) for its data center.

Secrecy has also surrounded the process for Amazon’s SUP. In response to public inquiries during the pre-application stage, town staff misrepresented the advancement of Amazon’s impending data center application.

For example, on March 30, 2022, Piedmont Environmental Council submitted a third request for an update on Amazon’s application, asking Rob Walton, director of Community Development, whether an application had been filed and “Have there been any pre-application meetings yet?”

Walton replied, “We have not received a pre-application meeting request nor a SUP submission at this point.”

However, by this time, the town and Amazon had held two formal pre-application meetings: the first on Nov. 10, 2021, with 19 representatives from the town, Amazon, and Amazon’s attorneys and consultants on the zoom invite; and the second on March 2.

A pre-application meeting precedes an official application and requires submission of completed paperwork. Amazon filed the official incomplete application just two weeks after Walton denied even having received a pre-application meeting request.

With so much at stake for the town and county, one would expect the town’s leadership to be concerned when matters such as the lack of transparency and irregularities in the Amazon data center process are brought to their attention, including the appearance of a conflict of interest when Town Manager Brandie Schaeffer accepted employment with Amazon.

Instead, when citizens raised these concerns during town council’s Aug. 9 citizens time, Mayor Nevill admonished the citizens for twisting facts to “unfairly malign” staff and Schaeffer. However, the citizens’ concerns are legitimate, not only about the Amazon data center application process, but also about what it means for the future of Warrenton and Fauquier County. We want and need to be able to work with the town on these matters.

Amy Trotto

Broad Run