(Hurt) — A company making their second attempt at a power plant and data center campus in Pittsylvania County will reach out to the public next week.
Balico will hold a community engagement meeting Tuesday from 5:30-to-7pm at Hurt Elementary School. Balico last month submitted a rezoning application for 760 acres in the Chalk Level community. The original plan was for over 22-hundred acres.
The new proposal still includes a 35-hundred megawatt gas-fired power plant connected to the nearby Mountain Valley Pipeline. But instead of 84 data centers this one will only have a dozen. The new proposal also includes eight ofturbines to power the data centers.
The original plan was pulled after public opposition and a promise of no support from the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors.
Earlier this month, Hurt Town Council adopted a resolution supporting Balico’s new proposal. Part of the new proposal calls for a water treatment plant Balico will build in Hurt. It would pipe water from the Staunton River to serve the power plant and data centers. One estimate places the cost at around 18 million dollars. Other users would be able to tap into the water line.
The Pittsylvania County Planning Commission will field the rezoning request in January.