The New Data Center Alley
THE FXBG ADVANCE TUESDAY 7/14/26 MORNING READ
By Steve Watkins, ADVANCE EDITOR
Last summer, University of Mary Washington students Chloe Adler and Owen Wheeler made a goofy two-minute video using AI called Berry Blaster. Their fellow student Alanah Cleare, a third producer, starred in the production. This year, Adler and Wheeler, working with UMW Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Studies J.D. Swerzenski, upped their game considerably with a 26-minute professional-grade YouTube video titled The New Data Center Alley: Development in Fredericksburg, Stafford, and Spotsylvania, Virginia.
They posted the video on Swerzenski’s YouTube page near the end of June, and it’s already closing in on a couple of thousand views. Here’s how they summarized the project:
Data center construction has skyrocketed over the past decade, with Virginia at the center of it. Now, with Data Center Alley in Loudoun and Prince William Counties becoming built out, development has shifted focus down the I-95 corridor.
Dozens of projects have been either proposed or begun construction in the 10-mile radius around our project base at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. Notably, these mostly hyper-scale data center “campuses” dwarf earlier centers in land, energy, and water usage.
So, if Fredericksburg City, Stafford and Spotsylvania Counties are to become the new data center alley in Virginia, what sorts of economic, environmental, and community impacts can we expect?
Supported by small stipends and production funding from UMW’s Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Summer Symposium, Adler, Wheeler, and Swerzenski pulled together clips and material from 47 sources, ten of whom where live interview subjects. Among them were environmental activist and UMW Sociology Professor Eric Bonds, Erin Sanzero, director of the data-center monitoring group Protect Stafford, Joey LoMonaco, editor of the Fredericksburg Free Press, and local attorney Charlie Payne, who represents various data center interests in the area.
The video, featured prominently on the Protect Stafford website, has been making the rounds through dozens of shares and reposts on social media, garnering far more attention than last year’s Berry Blaster.
Swerzenski said the Summer Institute is only five weeks long, “so everything from initial interviews to final edits happened between roughly mid May to Mid June.”
For Adler, who just graduated from the university, the project was her UMW swan song. Wheeler, a rising senior, will be back for another year at the school. Swerzenski praised both for their “considerable role” in the production.
“They deserve all the shine possible,” he said.
Neighborhoods Associations are having TWO Community Forums on 'Fredericksburg: Are We the New DATA CENTER ALLEY?'
Planning Committee #1: Rappahannock Area Sierra Club and Al Gore's Climate Action Project, Neighborhoods Associations.
Planning Committee #2: Fredericksburg Neighborhoods Coalition, Sierra Club, Al Gore's Climate Action Project.
DATA CENTERS affect ALL of us, even if they're not in our backyard. However, the children in the apts near the Fred Nats ballpark, who are 'historically disenfranchised' and their families are going to be surrounded by DATA CENTERS, within 250 ft of their homes, on 3 THREE sides.
Harvard Business Review (11-5-2025), one of the first articles out on 'Mitigating the Public Health Costs of DATA CENTERS': Data Centers are 'silent killers' for lung cancer, cardiovascular problems, premature death.
The 'Great Oaks' neighborhood is now 'at risk'. Penzance 1500 Gateway DATA CENTERS project is coming back to the Hylton tract (where the VA Hospital was supposed to go) near the Good Car Wash, off Plank Rd, Rt 3W. Council turned down their application in July 2025.
The public is invited to attend to learn more about DATA CENTERS. and to become involved:
COMMUNITY FORUM #1. Tuesday, July 21, 2026. Two University of Mary Washington student producers, Chloe Adler and Owen Wheeler will speak on the video: 'Fredericksburg: Are We the New DATA CENTER ALLEY?', discussion, Q/A audience participation. Downtown Library, BIG room, 6:30 - 8 PM. Free. Open to the public.
COMMUNITY FORUM #2. Wed, July 29, 2026. PANEL presentation by industry experts and activists (speakers TBD, Penzance reps invited. Declined. ) on 'Fredericksburg: Are We the New DATA CENTER ALLEY?', discussion, Q/A, Downtown Library, BIG room, 6:30 - 8 PM. Free. Open to the public.
NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST DATA CENTERS IN FREDERICKSBURG: Sat, July 18, 2026. Blue Gray Parkway and William St corner. Bring signs, banners, and flags. 10 AM - 12 NOON. Sponsored by 'Humans First' and local group DATA CENTER TRANSPARENCY. For details: National Day of Data Center Protests — Humans First