Apparently, Virginia’s governor and the Prince William Board of County Supervisors bought the sales pitch about the glories of data centers. I have to disagree with the Jan. 21 Metro article “Amazon to expand Va. data centers” that there has been “little pushback from residents.” On the contrary, a number of residents of western Prince William County are furious with the board for overturning current zoning that protected our “rural crescent.”

Residential areas such as the one where I live are about to experience a data center “campus” of dozens of massive buildings near our eastern boundary and across the street from Manassas National Battlefield Park. Residents have protested at county meetings and circulated recall petitions for our local supervisor (who resigned) and the chair of the board.

The prospect of ugly 75-foot-high brightly lit buildings that use and discharge large amounts of water, make considerable noise and will challenge the electrical grid is horrifying. But this would be another large data center — we already have many in our area — and residents are pushing back.

One irony of this is that the centers are being sold locally as tax generators, but meanwhile localities appear to be offering Amazon huge tax incentives. The governor is welcome to encourage Amazon to move into open spaces elsewhere in the state, but our increasingly residential part of Virginia is not open.

Lois Page, Gainesville

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