This valley has
always been worth defending.
Frederick County, Virginia sits in the northern Shenandoah Valley with acres of farmland and forest stretching across karst terrain that has shaped how people here live for generations. That terrain isn't just scenic; it's fragile. Groundwater moves through it in ways that make industrial contamination uniquely dangerous and uniquely difficult to undo.
In 2025, two data center proposals landed in Frederick County: a 644-acre campus south of Stephens City and a 105-acre site south of Winchester. They arrived quietly, the way these proposals usually do: through rezoning applications and meetings most residents never hear about until it's almost too late to matter.
Protect Frederick exists because residents found out and decided to act.
Our land. Our water. Our home. The character of a place.
Water
Frederick County sits almost entirely on karst terrain, which is limestone geology riddled with sinkholes and underground streams. Contamination doesn't stay where it lands. Instead, it moves, invisibly, through the aquifer that supplies wells across the county.
Power
REC projects 17 gigawatts of data center demand by 2040 which is 18 times more than its current peak load. That demand doesn't come free. It gets spread across every member of the co-op. Frederick County residents would subsidize industrial power consumption they never voted for.
Land
The proposals would convert hundreds of acres of agricultural land to industrial use and that conversion is permanent. There is no future Board of Supervisors that can undo it and the farmland and apple orchards that define this valley do not come back.
Accountability
The decision rests with seven supervisors, some of whom may have ties to the economic interests pushing this forward. A decision of this magnitude would be irreversible and as such, we deserve a process that is fully transparent and fully accountable to the people who live here.
Pressure and Presence.
The playbook isn't complicated. It's the same one that stopped data centers here, slowed them in Pittsylvania, and is forcing reconsideration across rural Virginia. Organized community pressure works, but only when it's sustained, and backed by a presence that can't be ignored. Protect Frederick is building toward that.
Build the record
Every petition signature and every speaker at a Board meeting becomes part of the official record. That record will follow this issue through every legal and political challenge.
Fill the rooms
An empty chamber signals no opposition, but a room full of residents with a sign-in sheet will bring attention. Supervisors face re-election. Visibility matters, and we need to show up.
Hold officials accountable
Conflicts of interest, voting records, public statements, economic ties, etc. We need all of it documented and made available to voters. November 2026 will be a referendum on this Board.
Connect the dots
Frederick County is not alone. Data center campaigns are playing out across the region. What we learn here (what works, what doesn't) is useful to every community facing the same fight.
A resource for every community
facing this fight.
The data center industry has a playbook. It moves into rural counties with limited planning capacity, builds relationships with economic development officials before the public knows anything is happening, and presents the decision as already made by the time residents find out.
Communities fighting back need their own playbook and Protect Frederick is building toward becoming that resource. For Frederick County first, and for the broader region as this fight spreads.
We are documenting what works: connecting organizers, sharing research on conflicts of interest, zoning law, and the real economic math of data center development. We are building the institutional knowledge that individual campaigns burn through and lose.
The valley is worth defending and it is the right of every rural community to decide its own future.
Ready to help?
Sign the petition, volunteer, get a yard sign or just share this site with a neighbor who doesn't know what's at stake yet.