Honor SOFRED: Do Not Approve the Gibson Rezoning as Submitted
The Issue
PETITION TO THE FREDERICK COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
Honor SOFRED: Do Not Approve the Gibson Rezoning as Submitted
We, the undersigned residents, neighbors, and stewards of Frederick County, ask the Board of Supervisors to withhold approval of the Gibson rezoning as submitted. Any approval should secure permitted uses, a development plan, and enforceable proffers that carry the Southern Frederick Area Plan—SOFRED—into practice.
We support responsible economic growth, good jobs, and thoughtfully designed places. This property deserves development that brings SOFRED’s vision to life.
Read the Comprehensive Plan and its small area plans together, and you see little islands of life, each with its own harmony and distinctive character. Their employment areas, neighborhoods, village centers, historic places, and natural resources were planned with intention.
A blue color on a future land-use map is not a blank check for every industrial use. The maps must be read alongside the written plans, including language shaped through community input about what belongs where, how different uses should fit together, and how they should transition into surrounding areas.
Each rezoning should honor that language and strengthen the harmony and character envisioned throughout the larger community—not simply follow a color on a map.
For the Route 277 Triangle, SOFRED states: “In specific areas a mix of flexible uses, with office uses in prominent locations is encouraged.” It calls for “high quality architecture and site design” and a “strong positive community image” (p. 29).
We ask that prominent Route 277 frontage be reserved for offices, professional services, and compatible supporting businesses, such as cafés, shops, printing services, and other uses that complement office employment, enhance walkability, and contribute to a strong positive community image. Selected light industrial and advanced manufacturing uses should be appropriately located behind them. Secure this arrangement through a binding development plan and enforceable commitments to high-quality architecture, landscaping, connected green spaces, pedestrian and bicycle access, and protection of natural resources.
SOFRED says, “All areas should be designed to promote/support pedestrian and bike access, making this a walkable community” (p. 33). It also calls for restaurants and community businesses to be “located close to and easily accessible by car or by foot” to employment areas (p. 34). We support places where people can walk to lunch, visit local businesses, and enjoy green spaces—with safe paths and crossings connecting employment areas to the surrounding community as development occurs.
SOFRED’s vision for walkable and bikeable employment areas offers residents opportunities to work, shop, and enjoy community life close to home. An office-led campus could support more of those local connections.
Freight-dominated industrial development has a very different reach. Trucks travel regional routes, bringing traffic from outside the community along I-81, Routes 277 and 522, and connecting roads throughout SOFRED and surrounding areas.
Just as screening a substation does not erase the effects of very large transmission lines extending far beyond it, screening industrial buildings does not contain the truck traffic they generate. That industrial footprint extends far beyond the property, affecting roads, neighborhoods, safety, and quality of life throughout the larger community.
SOFRED calls for “greenways, stream valley parks, and stream buffers around waterways” (p. 37). Gibson’s waterways, wetlands, and woodlands should help shape its development from the beginning. We envision a landmark campus whose architecture complements that natural setting, with connected habitat and thoughtfully placed trails.
Protect Wrights Run and its downstream connections to Opequon Creek, the Potomac River, and the Chesapeake Bay. Preserve this connected watershed and its wildlife habitat, with trails that invite people to enjoy nature while protecting sensitive areas.
The plan also calls for protecting people and wildlife from “unhealthy levels of noise and light” (p. 38). Honor that commitment with shielded lighting, measurable limits on noise, glare, and vibration, and enforceable protections for surrounding homes and natural areas.
To uphold SOFRED’s vision and protect surrounding homes, natural lands, and roadways, we request explicit exclusions for:
• Warehousing and storage as principal uses; freight-dominated wholesale and distribution operations.
• Truck transportation and depots; truck and fleet maintenance; tractor-trailer parking yards; truck, RV, and utility-trailer rental.
• Self-storage; contractor storage yards and other uses dominated by outdoor storage or heavy truck activity.
• Small-arms ammunition manufacturing; industrial laundry and dry-cleaning operations.
• Data centers and high-energy-use facilities as defined by Virginia law.
• Industrial-scale power/energy generation, including gas turbines; large battery energy storage installations; battery manufacturing and recycling.
Review plastics, rubber, and other manufacturing uses individually, and expressly exclude those whose noise, emissions, truck traffic, outdoor storage, or wastewater would be incompatible with the area. Identify and exclude incompatible hazardous-material manufacturing and bulk-storage operations. Any exception for ordinary emergency backup power should be narrowly defined. Secure these restrictions through enforceable proffers before approval.
FOIA-released correspondence from January 2025 describes a proposed 100+ MW gas-turbine power generation facility serving the broader approximately 600-acre Gibson Assemblage (marketed for a hyperscale data center campus or advanced manufacturing facilities). Before approving this rezoning, the County should publicly clarify that proposal’s status and location. The project’s enforceable proffers must explicitly exclude all data centers, including hyperscale campuses; all high-energy-use facilities as defined by Virginia law; and industrial-scale power generation.
The I-81 widening and Exit 317 improvement package is estimated at $253.7 million, in a corridor serving existing industrial parks and substantial freight traffic. Before approving additional truck-intensive uses at Gibson, compare their long-term transportation costs and community benefits with alternatives that fulfill SOFRED’s vision.
Compare warehouse and manufacturing proposals with an office-led mix of professional services, compatible retail, and appropriate agribusiness. Use an updated Cost of Land Use analysis to compare net fiscal returns alongside wages, water demand, and transportation costs. Before approval, demonstrate how the chosen mix will fulfill SOFRED’s call for “office uses in prominent locations” and a “strong positive community image.”
SOFRED envisions the nearby Lake Frederick area as a “gateway feature for Frederick County” (p. 29). Here, at southern Frederick’s connections with Clarke and Warren counties, along routes leading travelers to the Shenandoah Valley and Shenandoah National Park, our community should offer a remarkable greeting. If beloved farmland is to become something new, let it become a legacy: exceptional architecture rooted in our rural heritage, nature woven through its design, and places that enrich daily life. Let visitors recognize what makes this valley special, and residents feel proud to call it home. That is a high standard for rezoning farmland—and a fitting one for land we love so dearly.
Uphold SOFRED’s language, intent, and distinctive vision. This Route 277 Triangle parcel offers an opportunity for good jobs, beautiful architecture, connected green spaces, and community life. Withhold approval until binding commitments demonstrate how the development will fulfill that promise.
372
The Issue
PETITION TO THE FREDERICK COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
Honor SOFRED: Do Not Approve the Gibson Rezoning as Submitted
We, the undersigned residents, neighbors, and stewards of Frederick County, ask the Board of Supervisors to withhold approval of the Gibson rezoning as submitted. Any approval should secure permitted uses, a development plan, and enforceable proffers that carry the Southern Frederick Area Plan—SOFRED—into practice.
We support responsible economic growth, good jobs, and thoughtfully designed places. This property deserves development that brings SOFRED’s vision to life.
Read the Comprehensive Plan and its small area plans together, and you see little islands of life, each with its own harmony and distinctive character. Their employment areas, neighborhoods, village centers, historic places, and natural resources were planned with intention.
A blue color on a future land-use map is not a blank check for every industrial use. The maps must be read alongside the written plans, including language shaped through community input about what belongs where, how different uses should fit together, and how they should transition into surrounding areas.
Each rezoning should honor that language and strengthen the harmony and character envisioned throughout the larger community—not simply follow a color on a map.
For the Route 277 Triangle, SOFRED states: “In specific areas a mix of flexible uses, with office uses in prominent locations is encouraged.” It calls for “high quality architecture and site design” and a “strong positive community image” (p. 29).
We ask that prominent Route 277 frontage be reserved for offices, professional services, and compatible supporting businesses, such as cafés, shops, printing services, and other uses that complement office employment, enhance walkability, and contribute to a strong positive community image. Selected light industrial and advanced manufacturing uses should be appropriately located behind them. Secure this arrangement through a binding development plan and enforceable commitments to high-quality architecture, landscaping, connected green spaces, pedestrian and bicycle access, and protection of natural resources.
SOFRED says, “All areas should be designed to promote/support pedestrian and bike access, making this a walkable community” (p. 33). It also calls for restaurants and community businesses to be “located close to and easily accessible by car or by foot” to employment areas (p. 34). We support places where people can walk to lunch, visit local businesses, and enjoy green spaces—with safe paths and crossings connecting employment areas to the surrounding community as development occurs.
SOFRED’s vision for walkable and bikeable employment areas offers residents opportunities to work, shop, and enjoy community life close to home. An office-led campus could support more of those local connections.
Freight-dominated industrial development has a very different reach. Trucks travel regional routes, bringing traffic from outside the community along I-81, Routes 277 and 522, and connecting roads throughout SOFRED and surrounding areas.
Just as screening a substation does not erase the effects of very large transmission lines extending far beyond it, screening industrial buildings does not contain the truck traffic they generate. That industrial footprint extends far beyond the property, affecting roads, neighborhoods, safety, and quality of life throughout the larger community.
SOFRED calls for “greenways, stream valley parks, and stream buffers around waterways” (p. 37). Gibson’s waterways, wetlands, and woodlands should help shape its development from the beginning. We envision a landmark campus whose architecture complements that natural setting, with connected habitat and thoughtfully placed trails.
Protect Wrights Run and its downstream connections to Opequon Creek, the Potomac River, and the Chesapeake Bay. Preserve this connected watershed and its wildlife habitat, with trails that invite people to enjoy nature while protecting sensitive areas.
The plan also calls for protecting people and wildlife from “unhealthy levels of noise and light” (p. 38). Honor that commitment with shielded lighting, measurable limits on noise, glare, and vibration, and enforceable protections for surrounding homes and natural areas.
To uphold SOFRED’s vision and protect surrounding homes, natural lands, and roadways, we request explicit exclusions for:
• Warehousing and storage as principal uses; freight-dominated wholesale and distribution operations.
• Truck transportation and depots; truck and fleet maintenance; tractor-trailer parking yards; truck, RV, and utility-trailer rental.
• Self-storage; contractor storage yards and other uses dominated by outdoor storage or heavy truck activity.
• Small-arms ammunition manufacturing; industrial laundry and dry-cleaning operations.
• Data centers and high-energy-use facilities as defined by Virginia law.
• Industrial-scale power/energy generation, including gas turbines; large battery energy storage installations; battery manufacturing and recycling.
Review plastics, rubber, and other manufacturing uses individually, and expressly exclude those whose noise, emissions, truck traffic, outdoor storage, or wastewater would be incompatible with the area. Identify and exclude incompatible hazardous-material manufacturing and bulk-storage operations. Any exception for ordinary emergency backup power should be narrowly defined. Secure these restrictions through enforceable proffers before approval.
FOIA-released correspondence from January 2025 describes a proposed 100+ MW gas-turbine power generation facility serving the broader approximately 600-acre Gibson Assemblage (marketed for a hyperscale data center campus or advanced manufacturing facilities). Before approving this rezoning, the County should publicly clarify that proposal’s status and location. The project’s enforceable proffers must explicitly exclude all data centers, including hyperscale campuses; all high-energy-use facilities as defined by Virginia law; and industrial-scale power generation.
The I-81 widening and Exit 317 improvement package is estimated at $253.7 million, in a corridor serving existing industrial parks and substantial freight traffic. Before approving additional truck-intensive uses at Gibson, compare their long-term transportation costs and community benefits with alternatives that fulfill SOFRED’s vision.
Compare warehouse and manufacturing proposals with an office-led mix of professional services, compatible retail, and appropriate agribusiness. Use an updated Cost of Land Use analysis to compare net fiscal returns alongside wages, water demand, and transportation costs. Before approval, demonstrate how the chosen mix will fulfill SOFRED’s call for “office uses in prominent locations” and a “strong positive community image.”
SOFRED envisions the nearby Lake Frederick area as a “gateway feature for Frederick County” (p. 29). Here, at southern Frederick’s connections with Clarke and Warren counties, along routes leading travelers to the Shenandoah Valley and Shenandoah National Park, our community should offer a remarkable greeting. If beloved farmland is to become something new, let it become a legacy: exceptional architecture rooted in our rural heritage, nature woven through its design, and places that enrich daily life. Let visitors recognize what makes this valley special, and residents feel proud to call it home. That is a high standard for rezoning farmland—and a fitting one for land we love so dearly.
Uphold SOFRED’s language, intent, and distinctive vision. This Route 277 Triangle parcel offers an opportunity for good jobs, beautiful architecture, connected green spaces, and community life. Withhold approval until binding commitments demonstrate how the development will fulfill that promise.
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Petition created on October 26, 2026