Pittsylvania power plant 'dropped on us like a bomb'

Oct 28, 2024

Planners recommend approval of special us permit

CHATHAM — As details start to emerge about a 3,500 megawatt gas power plant planned in Pittsylvania County, one that could be the largest in the state, residents are voicing their opposition.

Balico, the company that's submitted an application for the mammoth facility and data center complex on some 2,200 acres in the Banister District, will host two community meetings this week.

“It’s poised to probably be the largest in the state of Virginia," Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Robert Tucker told the Register & Bee in a phone interview Saturday morning. Tucker represents the Banister District, which covers the central-western portion of the county.

The power plant would tap into the recently completed Mountain Valley Pipeline, which starts in West Virginia and runs into Chatham.

“Based on my understanding … they are not going to be pollutants into the environment," Tucker told the newspaper. "In fact, there’s no smoke that actually comes out of that power plant or those stacks, it’s going to be all vapor."

Although plans for the Chalk Level area proposal put it as the biggest plant in the state, Tucker said it's not as large as what some aerial shots are portraying.

The plant would feed power to an electricity-hungry data center complex planned as the other part of the project.

A sign along Chalk Level Road voices opposition for a project on a 2,200 acre stretch in the Banister District of Pittsylvania County.

A data center is basically an enormous digital library.

“The power plant is there to basically power that data center campus," Tucker said.

Schematics show dozens of two-story buildings nearly 400,000 square feet each to house the data center, which would be the second planned facility of its kind in Pittsylvania County.

Anchorstone Advisors SOVA wants to bring a $4 billion investment with a center in Ringgold situated on 946 acres located off U.S. 58 and Cedar Road.

"This power source would use the most advanced turbine technologies available and take advantage of existing Mountain Valley Pipeline infrastructure in the Banister District," Adriana Alegrett, a spokesperson with Balico, wrote in a news release on the project.

Alegrett did not return a call or email from the Register & Bee on Saturday.

Looking like a warehouse on the outer view, inside it’s more like a huge server room with thousands of computers. For the Ringgold one, up to 500 workers could eventually be employed there.

Herndon-based Balico is hosting two sessions for neighbors to learn more about the plans, view renderings of the campus and ask questions. The first starts at 6 p.m. Monday at the Pittsylvania County Community Center located at 115 S. Main St. in Chatham.

The second will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Riceville Missionary Baptist Church's Family Life Center at 1444 Riceville Road in Java.

"Balico has a proven track record of developing complex, energy efficient projects in the power sector while working closely with local communities," Alegrett wrote in the statement. "It is committed to being a strong partner to Pittsylvania County, both by investing in the utilities and public safety infrastructure necessary to support this proposal and by helping the region to attract skilled, high-paying jobs at data centers that will train and retain local talent."

Tucker said he plans to be at both community meetings.

“I’m going to let the owner, investor and their team basically do a little bit of a selling job there," he told the Register & Bee.

Tucker said he's heard mixed reactions on the project from people in his district.

In recent months, residents have appeared before the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors lamenting that the Banister District of the county often is overlooked for economic development efforts. Others have pushed for small stores to alleviate the need for residents to travel to Danville for grocery shopping.

“It’s just like any other large-scale project, I think people want it, but they don’t want it in their neighborhood," Tucker explained of what he's heard from constituents.

With bright yellow signs proclaiming "no power plants, no data centers in rural areas" — under a red circle with a slash — residents along Chalk Level Road appear to be staking their positions on the project.

Another larger sign reads "save our farmlands" with the "no power plants, no data center" message.

For Jenny East Cole, the whole thing came as a shock.

“This was a big surprise," she told the Register & Bee via phone Saturday. “Nobody knew this was coming."

Cole said she received a certified letter about the zoning change Oct. 18. Since the mail came after 5 p.m., it wasn't until the following Monday that she could try to reach out to the county to get details.

She said no one from the county had returned her call.

Signs along Chalk Level Road alert drivers to a planned power plant and data center in the Banister District of Pittsylvania County.

“I will be living directly across from one of their main entrances," Cole, who moved there in 2006, said.

She said only neighbors who have properties touching the development received notification.

"It's hard to trust anybody who has been doing all of this work behind the scenes," she said, "that all of us would have this dropped on us like a bomb.”

Although he's known about this endeavor for about a year, Tucker wasn't able to divulge details because of a non-disclosure agreement, something that's common for economic development projects.

The plans came into public view last week when the county posted the application to a new online portal. Otherwise, the applications wouldn't have been seen until an agenda packet was posted for the Pittsylvania County Planning Commission, the authority that will first hear a rezoning request.

That meeting is planned for Nov. 7, two days later than normal because of Election Day on Nov. 5.

Zoned as a residential suburban subdivision district, the company and 16 property owners along Chalk Level Road are looking to change it to an industrial district.

“I think it’s important for the county … to be as open and transparent as possible," Tucker said of the new system of posted zoning change applications. “That way the county doesn't give the appearance of we are either for or against it.”

Tucker believes the location was strategically selected to tap into the pipeline.

“It kind of makes sense," he said, while noting the county's No. 1 commodity is land.

Tucker didn't disclose a feeling on the project one way or another, instead putting the onus on the company to "sell" it to the residents.

“Right now I think it’s important that everyone step back, take a breath, and let’s allow the investor and his team to basically educate the community" and "be honest, open” to address the questions, he said, instead of people who "line up and take sides and draw lines in the sand."

Charles Wilborn (434) 791-7976

[email protected]

@CWilbornGDR on Twitter

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Planners recommend approval of special us permit