Victory for the Gainesville District as judge voids Prince William Digital Gateway, requiring a re-vote.
For the last four years the people of the Gainesville District have faced threats of destruction of our homes, properties, and the Manassas National Battlefield Park, and were left with an insurmountable challenge to take on a reckless board and the largest corporations in the world. This was a true David versus Goliath test. We were left for too long without any representation with our sitting supervisor unable to defend our position.
Today is a day of exhilaration as a group of Gainesville citizens defied all odds, took on the most powerful entities and our own Government, and came up victorious! While this may shock the world, it is not shocking to Gainesville. This community has fought back so much reckless development over the last 50 years. Every time these outside attacks come into the Gainesville District, Gainesville fights back to defend their homes, schools, parks, and places of worship. Gainesville is the ultimate honey badger.
The Oak Valley community, with the support of so many people in the community, challenged the Prince William Digital Gateway. Today, Circuit Court Judge Kimberly Irving ruled on the rezoning void ab initio, as if the rezoning never existed. There were so many issues with the board’s actions during the rezoning. One of the most glaring issues was the board knowingly starting their meeting without following their own regulations for proper notification. Bob Weir objected to holding the meeting with this glaring omission, knowing it would jeopardize any decision they came to. During a lame duck session, Ann Wheeler passed the PW Digital Gateway as a parting gift to the Gainesville District.
With my community, I fought this board every step of the way. We attended every board meeting for years. Many meetings lasting 12-15 hours with this particular meeting lasting 27 hours. Many of us stayed for every minute. We drove buses down to the state legislators to plead our case. We fought with everything we had, and in the end, we did what Gainesville always does, we came up victorious.
As I shared with The Washington Times, the Prince William Digital Gateway “was perhaps the worst case of developer greed and political corruption in our county’s history.”
Now it is time to come and clean up this mess. I wish Bob Weir was here to celebrate and see this moment. I met Bob and so many others during this battle. If you elect me you know that I will never back down, I will never give up, I will fight to the very end. After all, I am Gainesville through and through.
