Last Tuesday, December 13th, was a good day for Citizens of Fauquier County and the ten town residents who joined as plaintiffs in the suit to overturn the Amazon special use permit for its data center at the eastern gateway to Warrenton. The judge determined that the case against the town and Amazon should proceed despite the defendants’ attempt to have the case dismissed.
Most importantly, the Court ruled that the town violated Virginia law, as claimed by CFFC, when it failed to consider a public purpose in initiating the zoning change that was the basis of Amazon’s special use permit. CFFC was also granted the opportunity to amend six other counts in its case. We will keep you up-to-date on next steps in this litigation.
CFFC undertook this litigation because of serious concerns regarding how the town approved the zoning change and how it granted the special use permit. We did so on behalf of the town and many of its residents whose health and well-being would be affected by the data center and because of the importance of holding elected officials and developers accountable for openness and transparency and adherence to the rules. Thousands of hours were spent by CFFC board members and significant expenses were incurred in the effort. We also believe that overturning Amazon’s special use permit is important to our goal of mitigating the proliferation of data centers in Fauquier.
CFFC is very grateful to everyone who has contributed to our efforts to protect the county from the onslaught of data centers we have seen in neighboring counties. Financial contributions have never been more important and the outpouring of support from existing donors who have been more generous than ever and new donors has allowed us to pursue this litigation and related data center efforts. Our website has information about how to make donations.
Kevin Ramundo
President, Citizens for Fauquier County