First of all, as much as I hate to admit it, I am an old-timer in Haymarket. When Compass Datacenters announced a family-friendly open house at Bull Run Middle School on April 25, I just knew it was going to be another sad fairy tale (sadder than Bambi losing its mother).
You see, in 1994, Disney decided this beautiful area had so much beauty and history to offer, it would be a wonderful place to have a made-up history theme park, called “Disney’s America.”
Disney also had an open house at a local school. In the cafeteria, tables were filled with information about each attraction. Minnie and Mickey were there. Actually they were quite charming.
The Prince William County supervisors, at the time, were charmed, too, by the money and glitz. They approved 3,000 acres of Virginia property to be zoned for the imitation of a history park.
On a personal note: We had land connected to the Disney tract and could have become instant millionaires and left the area. Instead, we worked hard, started a business, raised a family and are now retired, having lived in the same house for 40 years.
Back to Compass and the fairy tale – we were told how wonderful an addition they would be for the area. Not using much water, not using much electricity, not polluting, making horse trails, having parks, being good to the animal habitat and not disturbing the Manassas National Battlefield Park.
The difference between Minnie and Mickey Mouse and the data center crew is that Minnie and Mickey have more honor and integrity. They knew they had to leave and they did. Please, Compass and QTS, follow the mouse.
– Fay Abulhasan, Haymarket
(3) comments
Nimbyism is still alive and well with these folks. Progress should've stopped as soon as I moved here! I like the internet but not data centers that support it, I like cheap gas but no drilling or pipelines, etc....
They should have built the Disney park. We got the sprawl and traffic anyway, would have been great to see the tax revenue and associated business growth. I'm all for the data centers too, tax revenue and a few jobs without added traffic.
Very well said. They will use massive amounts of power and water and generate a lot of background hum. Until the generators start up; then they will get really loud and spew pollution into the muggy summer air.
Not to mention the blot on the landscape around the national battlefield park.
The pageland track is wrong for this level of industrialization no matter how Wheeler spins it.
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