A Virginia appeals court on Tuesday ruled in favor of the Oak Valley Homeowners Association and the American Battlefield Trust in two legal challenges against PW Digital Gateway’s data center project in western Prince William County.
The fate of the project – which, if built, would be the largest data center campus in the world – remains uncertain.
Virginia Court of Appeals Justices Stuart A. Raphael, Randolph A. Beales and David Bernhard made the unanimous decision in a joint opinion Tuesday.
These two cases, Oak Valley Homeowners Association, Inc., et al. v. Prince William County Board of County Supervisors, et al. and Katy Burke et al. v. The Board of County Supervisors heard a joint hearing on Feb. 24 Arlington.
Issues of improper public notice led to the hearing, and further scrutiny of the actions of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors’ District in November and December 2023 before the 27-hour public hearing of Digital Gateway on December 12-13 of that year. The board finally green-lighted the Digital Gateway site on December 13.
At full construction, Digital Gateway near Gainesville will include more than 22 million square feet of facilities spread across more than 2,100 acres west of Prince William. The project will include 37 data centers, roughly the size of 144 Walmart supercenters.
In the Oak Valley case, Prince William Circuit Court Judge Kimberly A. Irving last August declared the Digital Gateway rezoning void “ab initio,” halting the development. Tuesday’s ruling confirmed Irving’s opinion.
The American Battlefield Trust case was initially dismissed on demurrer in November 2024, but was eventually linked to the Oak Valley challenge.
Elena Schlossberg, executive director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, speaks to reporters on Feb. 24, 2026, outside the Arlington County courthouse. He is joined by, from left: Karen Sheehan (white hair), one of the directors of the corporation; Liam Burke, one of the plaintiffs in the American Battlefield Trust case; Craig Blakeley, lead counsel for the Oak Valley plaintiffs; and Chap Petersen, lead plaintiff counsel representing the American Battlefield Trust.
It was unclear whether Prince William County or the developers of Compass and QTS will make another appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court. InsideNoVa’s requests for comment from the developers were not immediately returned.
“Our community has not and will not give up,” the Coalition to Protect Prince William County said in a statement. “We are very proud of the sacrifices of citizens, non-profit organizations and our justice system that followed the law. Digital Gateway represents everything that is broken about the information center industry. From the distortion of good local government, to the complete liberation of the industrial system that takes … energy, water and land … this community did not give up.”
County as defendant
Prince William County spent at least $1.6 million to defend the division against legal challenges.
Nikki Brown, a spokeswoman for the district, said the district is currently reviewing the decision.
“The district attorney will provide legal advice to the board,” Brown said. “Since the decision can be appealed within 30 days, and it is not yet final, this is still an active case.
Chairman Deshundra Jefferson also declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.
In a news release, the American Battlefield Trust applauded the decision.
“The Court of Appeals has agreed with the position we have taken for years,” David Duncan, president of the trust said in the release. “The district did not publicize this outrageous proposal properly or make its text available to the public, even though this project would have an incredible impact on the community. Instead, the district rushed to judgment, because it knew that the Board’s support for this great project was eroding.”
In the decision written by Raphael, the court emphasized the importance of proper advertising notice as distinct from the issue of actual notice.
“In resolving this appeal, we clarify that the public entity must publish the proposed zoning regulations in accordance with Code § 15.2-2204 (A) and any non-conflicting advertising requirements established by law,” the law said. “The saving provision in Code § 15.2-2204(B)—which represents a violation of the written notice requirement for affected and adjacent landowners who have ‘actual knowledge of the proceeding or participated in it—does not justify a deficiency in advertising under subsection A.
The judgment continued, “In other words, with a timely challenge that was brought
Code § 15.2-2204(E), a plaintiff who alleges and proves standing may assert the mandatory public notice requirements, even if the plaintiff knew of and participated in the civil suit.
Therefore, the court granted permission to the plaintiffs of Oak Valley and confirmed their doubts about the interference of the data center – in terms of vision or excessive noise – on their land.
“The threatened harm presented here by these eight plaintiffs is more serious and lasting,” the ruling states. “We find the board and the developers’ response unconvincing that the mitigation measures should alleviate the plaintiffs’ concerns about noise and visual damage.”
Read the decision here:
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