We don’t know much about whatever mysterious project appears to be headed to the Wood Haven Technology Park near the intersection of Interstates 81 and 581 in Roanoke County. Some Roanoke officials think it’s a data center, and they don’t much like that for all the reasons that people have turned against data centers.
Here is some potentially useful context so that if people want to get upset, they can get upset at the right things.
1. This is what Wood Haven was set up for.
The Western Virginia Regional Industrial Facilities Authority (more on that shortly) acquired the land in 2016 specifically to create a place for technology companies — hence the word “technology” in the name. This site grew out of concerns that the Roanoke Valley didn’t have enough large-acreage sites for business prospects, and the land that was available at the intersection of two interstates seemed a prime location that local governments didn’t want to pass up.
At the time, Beth Doughty, who was then executive director of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership, said that most inquiries the partnership received were for sites of 51 acres or more — but the valley had no ready-to-go sites of that size available. The 111-acre Wood Haven was intended to address that, and also to position the Roanoke Valley to attract technology companies.
The chairman of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors at the time, Jason Peters (now commissioner of the revenue), said in a formal statement: “This is a gateway property whose high visibility will help us make a statement about the region. We will target high-wage, high-value projects that help us achieve high-quality development compatible with the location.”
Of note: No one at the time really knew what data centers were. This was before the big surge of data center development that has now made the facilities so unpopular.
However, a data center would seem to meet Peters’ definition of “high-wage, high-value projects.” Data centers are certainly “high-value.” They generate a lot of tax revenue. Data centers are not necessarily high-employment facilities. A state study two years ago said the typical employment was about 50 people for a 250,000-square-foot data center, although they are high-wage. That state study found that “on average, data center employees and contractors earn about $100,000 per year, varying based on job role and area of the state.”
2. The city doesn’t have a majority say on this.
The official opposition to a data center at Wood Haven has come from two members of the Roanoke City Council, Terry McGuire and Phazhon Nash. Here’s the political challenge for them: The city doesn’t own a majority share in Wood Haven. Under the terms of the deal, the ownership stake in Wood Haven is 44% from the city, 44% from Roanoke County and 12% from Salem. The general thinking at the time was that the county had the land, but the city had the money to help with development.
The overall governance belongs to the Western Virginia Regional Industrial Facilities Authority, which includes Botetourt County, Franklin County, Roanoke, Roanoke County, Salem and the town of Vinton. Each locality has two members, so the city doesn’t have a majority there, either. This is the downside of regional cooperation: You don’t always get what you want. If McGuire and Nash don’t want a data center at Wood Haven, they first need to muster a majority on the city council to direct the city’s two members on the authority to oppose a data center — and then they need to persuade other localities to join them. However, they don’t appear to have a majority on their own council behind them. They said in a joint statement: “A majority of Roanoke City Council gave consensus to the City Manager to support this agreement moving forward.”
3. The Western Virginia Regional Industrial Facilities Authority owes its origin to economic transitions in the 1990s.
For those who wonder what the authority is and why it exists, we need to go back to the 1990s, when Virginia was starting to grapple with the demise of manufacturing jobs and the rise of overseas competition. Until then, Roanoke and Roanoke County were fierce rivals. As I like to tell people, at some point in the ’90s, they realized that their real competition wasn’t on the other side of Peters Creek Road; it was on the other side of the world. The watchword of that era was the need for more regional cooperation. In 1997, then-state Sen. Malfourd “Bo” Trumbo, R-Botetourt County, introduced legislation to authorize the creation of regional authorities for economic development purposes. The Western Virginia Regional Industrial Facilities Authority was formed in 2014. Wood Haven was its first project, although not all of its member localities chose to participate in the financial arrangements.
4. The authority members aren’t elected officials.
In practice, authorities of all sorts tend to be insulated from public opinion. Although all the authority members are appointed by their localities’ governing bodies, none of the members are elected officials — many are staff members. (Vinton’s mayor is an alternate for the town). If the public wants to have influence, they need to go to their locality’s governing body, not the authority.
5. Wood Haven is in Appalachian Power territory, and its power grid is 65% coal, although that will change.
Data centers draw controversy for two big reasons: their water usage and their power usage. While we don’t know if this project is a data center, the widespread belief is that it is, so let’s look at both water and power. Any business at Wood Haven would get its water from the Western Virginia Regional Water Authority. This is your periodic reminder that the Roanoke Valley uses less water today than it did 20 years ago, primarily because of more water-efficient appliances. There’s obviously a limit to how much can be drawn from the authority’s water supplies, but since we don’t know what the water usage here would be, we don’t know what the impact would be. Different data centers use water at different levels, depending on the cooling system, and all that technology is evolving.
What’s more certain is that data centers use lots of power — and there seems no way to get around that. Any business locating at Wood Haven would be getting electricity from Appalachian Power, which has a grid that’s 65% coal — so we’d be talking, indirectly, about a coal-powered business. (The same logic applies to anyone in Appalachian territory who is driving an electric vehicle; you’re basically driving a coal-powered car.) A data center company could buy renewable energy offsets elsewhere, although that doesn’t necessarily mean the specific electrons flowing into Wood Haven would be green. However, Appalachian’s 65% coal grid won’t last. Virginia law — the Clean Economy Act — mandates that Appalachian have a non-carbon grid by 2050. That’s why we see Appalachian developing more solar facilities and also exploring a small nuclear reactor in Campbell County.
6. We will have a better sense of water levels at Carvins Cove in about a month.
Keep in mind that Carvins Cove is not the Roanoke Valley’s only water source, just its most visible (because it’s the only one that’s open to the public) and the biggest (accounting for about 44% of the valley’s water supply). The water level at the cove is low but remains well above the level where mandatory restrictions are necessary. We are approaching a key milestone, though. Only twice in the last four decades has Carvins Cove been this low this late in the season. The two previous times were the drought years of 1999 and 2002. Both times the cove drew low over the summer, then started refilling in the fall when storms blew through. In 1999, that fill-up started in late September. In 2002, it started in mid-October. If that happens again, then there seems no cause for alarm. If it doesn’t, then we would be in a new era — although, again, the cove is not the valley’s only water source. I wrote more about the water data in this previous column. More info: Even at the level the cove it now, the reservoir is 55% full.
None of this will tell you who the buyer is (because I don’t know), but it may help you put the deal in context.
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