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Local backlash questions Virginia data center campus plans
Officials describe the proposed Berry Hill campus as southern Virginia’s biggest economic development project, spanning 3,500 acres.
A local newspaper in southern Virginia, SCMP Economy reports, ran a front-page headline blaming China for misconceptions about a proposed data-center project near Danville.
The dispute centers on Berry Hill, a 3,500-acre industrial site about 16 kilometers outside Danville, where officials say a new data-centre campus would be the biggest economic development project in southern Virginia’s history.
According to SCMP Economy, some residents have questioned the plan’s environmental impact, power requirements, and the secrecy around how it was approved, with concerns raised at public meetings and online.
The outlet adds that Vic Ingram, chair of the Danville-Pittsylvania Regional Industrial Facility Authority, told the local paper in June that online opposition was driven by what he called “Communist Chinese” propaganda.