Opposition to data centers intensifies as Strasburg residents press for moratorium

Martha Hughes asked the room to stand.

Medical workers. Teachers. Farmers. Mechanics. Parents. Students.

One by one, people rose Tuesday in the Strasburg Town Hall council chambers as Hughes, who identified herself as a registered nurse and eighth-generation Shenandoah County resident, asked them to look around.

Then she made her request plain. It was repeated many times Tuesday night.

"I formally request a moratorium on all data center development," Hughes said. "I'd also like to formally request the removal of data centers from our town and county ordinances."

For the third time in recent weeks, Strasburg residents came to a public meeting to push back against data center development even though a proposed data center for the Strasburg Industrial Park, called Project Tallmadge, was not up for a vote. The commission met to weigh a townhouse proffer amendment off Fort Bowman Road. Residents came for the data center.

Strasburg residents turned the Planning Commission's citizen comment period into a coordinated push to stop Project Tallmadge, asking the town to strip data centers from its ordinances and order independent studies of the project's effect on water, air and health.

By the end of the night, the town had set a date to talk about it.

Emily McCoryn, the council's representative on the commission, said Mayor Brandy Hawkins Boies had scheduled a public forum on the project for 7 p.m. Monday, June 15. The location is not set. McCoryn said the town is looking for a space larger than Town Hall and plans an online form so residents can submit questions ahead of time. She said the town would invite Takanock representatives, the company behind Project Tallmadge, to the forum.

She also said the Town Council's June 1 work session will include a public hearing on updated industrial design standards, which cover data centers. Otis previously said Project Tallmadge would not be subject to those new standards because town officials consider the project vested under the prior ordinance.

Project Tallmadge is planned for an 87-acre site near Interstate 81's Exit 296, inside the Strasburg Industrial Park between the interstate and the Mercury Paper plant.

The town's project page says the land is zoned industrial and the use is allowed by right.

Eighteen speakers addressed Project Tallmadge, data centers or concerns they connected to the project Tuesday night. Speaker after speaker said the company’s word was not enough.

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