Danville’s busy council race, with nine candidates for four seats and two more in a special election, is coming to a close. One, if not the last, forum before the Nov. 3 election was held Oct. 16.
Three incumbents and three challengers shared their thoughts on the top issues the city is facing during the event at Bible Way Cathedral. Housing, poverty, data centers and ensuring that the region’s growth reaches all areas of the city were topics that rose to the top of the discussion, hosted by the Danville-Pittsylvania Chamber of Commerce.
Incumbents James Buckner, Bryant Hood and Danny Marshall answered the same set of questions as challengers Lonnie Jones, Shakeva Frazier and Dustin Whittle. Incumbent mayor Alonzo Jones, incumbent Gary Miller and challengers Tony Howerton, Shelby Irving and Jasmine Lipscomb were absent. Nine of the candidates are running for four seats.
Marshall and Lipscomb are running in a separate special election to finish the remaining two years of Del. Madison Whittle’s term after Whittle, R-Danville, was elected to the General Assembly last year. In February, the city council selected Marshall to fill Whittle’s seat until the special election Nov. 3.
The six candidates answered questions from a moderator at the event.
They were mostly aligned on the top issues the city is facing, though there were mixed feelings on data center development.
How do data centers fit into Danville’s growth?
Data centers are shaping up to be a big factor in the city’s future, some candidates said.
Marshall mentioned the Microsoft data center in Mecklenburg County, about an hour east of Danville, that has generated significant revenue that Mecklenburg has put toward schools and property taxes.
“They built a new high school and middle school completely with cash, no money borrowed,” Marshall said. “Not only has the school system benefited, but also the property tax in Mecklenburg County is going to be 32 cents per $100. We’re paying twice that much here.”
Danville could see similar benefits from the proposed Stack Infrastructure AI data center campus, which would be built at the Berry Hill megasite. The megasite is in Pittsylvania County, but it’s jointly owned by the city and county, so Danville would reap tax benefits from the anticipated $100 billion project.
“They [Stack] told me the amount of money they would spend, and I said, ‘Say again?’” Marshall said. “$100 billion with a B. The taxes that is going to generate for Pittsylvania County and for us is just going to be phenomenal.”
For context, Buckner shared that the city’s annual budget is $347 million.
“Let that sink in for a minute,” he said. “What that new investment is going to look like, what we can do with it for shared prosperity, for programs that need funding, things we can do to improve our city. … It’s a heck of a start if you ask me.”
Hood said that “fear of the unknown” shapes many people’s opinions about data centers, and he’d like to see more research and community outreach done to answer resident questions. The city should communicate the information it has about data centers to “every church, every community center, every barbershop.”
He said that the tax revenue could go a long way toward reducing poverty, but “if we can get to the point of getting everybody educated on what they are and how they work, I think that’ll do us more justice than anything.”
Frazier said she was more hesitant about data centers, because she doesn’t want to see a big investment create greater wealth disparity.
She saw this happen with the Caesars Virginia casino, which opened in 2024 and contributes millions of dollars a year to city revenue through state gaming taxes.
“When we voted [on the casino], they gave us a promise that things would be cheaper here, that we will be able to afford what we have,” Frazier said. “I know people who were put out of their homes because landlords took advantage of that thing [the casino]. They were able to raise the rent.”
Frazier said the city needs to gather more resident input and find out if it’s something residents support.
“I’m for growing, I’m for prosperity, but at what cost?” she said. “Can we find something that benefits everyone, or can we at least have time to catch up with what we have going on so we can all understand?”
Whittle said he’s done a lot of research about data centers since he began his campaign, and reading about new technology alleviated his concerns about water and energy usage. He said his biggest concern now is vetting a data center developer to make sure they’re honest and trustworthy.
Soaring housing demand
Each of the city council candidates mentioned Danville’s growing need for housing, especially affordable housing and workforce housing.
A housing summit earlier this month revealed that pent-up housing demand in the city calls for nearly 4,000 rental units and 1,300 owned units. The city has added several hundred new apartments and homes since 2023, but major jobs announcements in recent years have exponentially increased the housing need.
Microporous, a lithium-ion battery separator manufacturer coming to the Berry Hill megasite in Pittsylvania, plans to create about 2,000 new jobs. And data center developer Stack Infrastructure is moving forward with plans to build an AI data center campus, also at the megasite, that would create about 2,500 jobs.
Buckner, Marshall and Hood all said they’d like to see the city loosen up some of the barriers to new home construction.
“There’s more than one piece to the puzzle, but one of the biggest things we can do is reduce some of the red tape when it comes to developers coming in to build housing for our workforce,” Buckner said. “We need to build entire neighborhoods. … We’ve got so much red tape and so much in place to prevent us from moving forward with housing the way we need to move forward.”
Buckner, who is a Realtor and the board chairman for Third Chance Housing, a local nonprofit that focuses on homelessness prevention, housing affordability and economic resilience, said housing has become “a major issue in the area.”
Marshall said one idea is to allow smaller lot sizes for developers.
“That way the developer would be able to get more houses on the same piece of property and would be able to reduce that cost,” he said.
Hood said he’s working on a plan for programming around blighted houses and first-time homeownership.
Contributing to the housing crisis is not only the cost to build housing, but also the cost of utilities, said Whittle, who is running for the first time.
Utility costs have been a primary issue among residents, many of whom have said the bills are too high at council meetings and on social media.
“One of the main reasons that I decided to run for city council is because our community has done a great job of bringing new industry and business, and through that economic development, we’re seeing an increase in tax revenue like our city hasn’t seen at any other time,” Whittle said. “I want to make sure that money is being used in the best way possible to benefit all communities in our city.”
He said that the city should consider putting tax revenue toward utility costs to make the cost of living cheaper.
Jones, who is running for the first time, also suggested using Caesars Virginia tax revenue to lower utility rates.
In the past, the city has refrained from using that revenue for operational or ongoing expenses. City Manager Ken Larking said it’s more sustainable to use the money for one-time projects that will create additional revenue and boost quality of life.
Frazier, who is executive director of Third Chance Housing, said that she gets calls weekly about people who are being priced out of their homes because of rising rents. She also wants to see programming for young people about financial literacy.
“I would love to see a program that would help people with these rent hikes,” she said. “Something to help them grow with the city, because we’re looking at growth, but there’s a lot being left behind that can’t sustain it.”
This overlaps with what Frazier said is her main concern: shared prosperity across the city.
“I work in eviction prevention every day … but this goes deeper than housing,” she said.
The city is growing — can everyone benefit?
Frazier, who is running for council for the second time after being runner-up in 2024, said that she was glad to see poverty reduction named as a priority for the city council this year.
“For years, I’ve been saying it [poverty] is here, but I was feeling crazy because others would just focus on the prosperity,” Frazier said. “We are in a great place of growth, but the present issue is, are we all able to grow? Who’s actually growing with that growth?”
A rising cost of living comes alongside economic growth, she said, and there should be greater resources throughout the city for reducing poverty and making sure each resident can be part of the city’s prosperity.
“One time falling behind on a $1,000 rent can mess your whole life up if you’re on a fixed income, if you’re trying to provide groceries, if you’re trying to pay your light bill,” Frazier said.
Jones mentioned a need for more robust homelessness prevention and programming. There is no daytime homeless shelter in the city, he said, as the House of Hope only provides a place for folks to stay overnight.
“I feel like our city has turned their back on the homeless and many hardworking people who are becoming homeless,” Jones said. A new shelter “could provide things they need, like a computer room so they can get proper IDs, a room where local businesses could come in and help with job searches.”
Data centers could provide additional tax revenue to put toward poverty reduction, said Buckner and Marshall.
Most of the candidates who didn’t attend the forum sent comments to Cardinal News:
Mayor Alonzo Jones (incumbent): He said reducing poverty should be the biggest priority for Danville, that data center developers need to be vetted and communicating with the community, and that he hopes the upcoming animal shelter assessment will bring the community together to find solutions for animal welfare.
Gary Miller (incumbent): He said that workforce training is a priority to ensure locals get the jobs coming to the region, that affordable housing needs to be created, that he’s become supportive of data centers since learning more about them, as long as they’re zoned correctly, and that he hopes the animal shelter assessment will provide information on best practices.
Tony Howerton (challenger): He said that his priority is making sure incoming revenue is invested correctly, that prosperity is shared across the city and no communities are left behind, that he’s still learning about data centers and the impact they’ll have on residents, and that new leadership may be necessary at the animal shelter.
Shelby Irving (challenger): She said that cost of living and affordability are her biggest concern, that senior housing is a priority, that she wants to learn more about data centers and hear from residents before making up her mind, and that the animal shelter needs to work to increase adoptions.
Jasmine Lipscomb (challenger): Did not respond to a request for an interview.
Visit our Voter Guide for more information about each candidate.
