Prince William County, VA

September 1, 2026

Balico withdrew an $8.85B Pittsylvania rezoning under organized opposition, and developers abandoned the Prince William Digital Gateway after court invalidation of the supervisory vote.

August 11, 2026

Opposition groups from Missouri to New Mexico to Virginia are shifting from harm arguments to procedural suits over notice, zoning, and meeting rules, a track Data Center Watch tied to at least 75 projects stalled in the first three months of 2024; Blackstone's QTS and Compass abandoned a Prince William County, Virginia conversion after a state court faulted public notice.

July 5, 2026

In Virginia, a Blackstone subsidiary walked from the 2,100-acre Prince William Digital Gateway over a zoning notice defect.

June 2, 2026

Contrast that with Illinois, where the POWER Act missed its May 31 deadline and Governor Pritzker is moving to suspend $983 million in tax credits, and Virginia, where a Prince William County appeals court halted the Digital Gateway project on public-notice grounds.

May 15, 2026

Compass Datacenters withdrew an 800-acre Prince William County project last month.

May 8, 2026

Meanwhile, the cautionary signal abroad is loud: Compass Datacenters walked from the $25 billion Prince William Digital Gateway, Virginia voter support for new data centers collapsed from 69% to 35% in a year, and 19 Michigan municipalities have frozen approvals after the Stargate speed-first play.

March 7, 2026

The Coalition to Protect Prince William County, Virginia, founded by Elena Schlossberg and Karen Sheehan, has spent a decade building a playbook that grassroots groups nationwide are now replicating.

February 16, 2026

The Virginia Court of Appeals' September 2025 ruling in Caparoula v. Board of County Commissioners of Prince William County reinforced broad deference to local rezoning decisions even against organized opposition, a precedent that cuts both ways.