AWS, a cloud-computing platform and subsidiary of Amazon, proposed building about 15 data centers across three areas in the southern part of Frederick County and investing $30 billion over 15 years. But, the proposal fell through in 2021, in part because AWS and the county government couldn't reach an agreement on the project's timeline.
Now, "numerous localities" in Virginia are being considered for AWS data center campuses; the locations will be decided later, a press release from Youngkin's office states.
" Virginia will continue to encourage the development of this new generation of data center campuses across multiple regions of the Commonwealth," Youngkin, R, said in a statement.
AWS's investment in Virginia is expected to create at least 1,000 jobs.
The company, one of Virginia's largest private-sector employers, has invested more than $35 billion in the state since establishing its first data centers and operations facilities there in 2006, Roger Wehner, director of economic development for AWS, said in a statement through Youngkin's office.
In 2018, AWS announced that its second national headquarters (HQ2) would be constructed in Arlington.
" Virginia is a world leader in innovation and cloud computing, thanks to its investment in a robust, highly-skilled workforce and emphasis on long-term public and private partnerships," Wehner said.
In Frederick County, AWS sought to establish three clusters, each with about five data centers, high-security warehouses that organizations and companies use to store and process massive amounts of data.
By the time the proposal fell through in 2021, local real estate agents, on behalf of AWS, had spoken to landowners about selling their property.
The data center campuses would have been north of Brunswick; in Adamstown near the Quantum Loophole data center campus — formerly home to the aluminum smelting plant Alcoa Eastalco Works, which closed in 2010; and in the Urbana area, on both sides of Interstate 270, said former Frederick County Councilman Kai Hagen, D.
But, multiple county officials said the timeline that AWS proposed was unreasonable.
"I wasn't going to commit to what I thought would be a sham public process," said County Councilman Steve McKay, R.
The 2022 midterm elections restricted the time available for the county to complete the necessary permitting, planning and rezoning to move forward with the project.
If the county and AWS had reached an agreement after convening in closed session in August 2021, the county would've had nine months — from September to June — to complete the legislative processes necessary to create a new zoning category in the county's code, change the Livable Frederick Master Plan, approve rezonings for numerous properties in three regions of the county, and update water and sewer plans, according to a draft timeline.
The tight timeline would have sidelined most other proposed council bills, Hagen said, adding that the public process would have been "cosmetic at best."
The county's code prohibits zoning changes within six months of the end of a term, so there would have been no flexibility to deviate from the proposed timeline.
It wouldn't have mattered what the public said about the proposal because there wouldn't have been enough time to change the process or hold additional meetings or hearings, Hagen said.
McKay said there was no way to carry out the process without "abusing" the public's trust in the county government.
© 2023 The Frederick News-Post (Frederick, Md.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
