Private Betrayal, Public Defiance: Botetourt’s Board of Supervisors

Propaganda Management by Google

In the second article of my data center series, I noted that the Water Authority and the Board of Supervisors bound themselves contractually to allow Google to wholly control messaging, i.e. propaganda, concerning the data center. It’s worth revisiting the language of that contract now:

“The Company reserves the right to control and approve the method, manner and content of any and all Confidential Information. Except as provided below, the County and the Authority will not disclose Confidential Information to anyone without the Company’s prior written consent… Should the County and/or the Authority receive any public records request implicating the Confidential Information, the County and the Authority will (i) promptly notify Company in writing of the request and provide Company with copies of all relevant documents related to the request; (ii) cooperate with Company in asserting any applicable exemptions from disclosure under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, including, but not limited to, the proprietary records and trade secrets exemption provided by Va. Code § 2.2- 3705.6(3); and (iii) allow Company to take any and all actions it deems necessary and appropriate to protect its Confidential Information, including, but not limited to, intervening in any legal proceedings related to the disclosure of the Confidential Information…Without limiting the foregoing, Company will manage all media and press relation services regarding Company’s involvement with the County and the Authority.”

Look at how broad that last clause is: “all media and press relation services regarding the Company’s involvement with the County and the Authority.” This is so broad, in fact, that every utterance of Gary Larrowe–or of the rest of the sorry rogues gallery presently embarrassing Botetourt County–should be considered the voice of Google.

The Story so Far

Let me fit this into context. Google approached the County, it seems, in 2023 to start data center negotiations. The Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission began signing non-disclosure agreements in favor of Google in March of 2024.

At the start of November 2024, it would have been illegal to construct a data center anywhere in the County, as neither zoning nor the county code would allow it. On November 13, notice was given of a special joint session of the Board and Planning on November 24, two days before the Thanksgiving holiday. At that session, the land that Google would later purchase was rezoned from agricultural to “research and advanced manufacturing” or “RAM.” The agenda and minutes deceptively reflect that there were no plans for this parcel ; this rezoning was for “speculative” purposes only. At the same session, the Botetourt Code was amended to permit data centers as a by-right use in RAM districts.

Typically, a simple special use permit in Botetourt takes six months or so to obtain, at separate meetings of Planning and the Board. Google accomplished enormously more—a rezoning and amendment of the very law of the County—in two weeks!

The County executed its contract with Google on June 24, 2025. The Comprehensive Plan in effect at the time required the County to prepare “a groundwater impact analysis when major subdivisions and other large-scale developments are proposed.” We now know that they did nothing of the kind for a data center installation which could affect the well-being of multiple counties.

Recently, in the summer of 2026, a newly appointed member of the Botetourt Planning Commission, Mark Tyson, after studying our water situation, concluded:

“I agree with the water expert I spoke with at length about what the Google data center water demands may mean to the Roanoke Valley who condensed it into just one word … ‘SUICIDE.’”

Accordingly, at a meeting of the Planning Commission held on July 7, Tyson, quietly supported by Steve Hartman, recommended that the Commission undertake an independent water study, and hold a public hearing concerning the same. There was enormous popular support for Tyson’s proposal. Please remember that Tyson and Hartman appear to be the only two members of the current Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors who did not sign Google’s NDA.

On July 28th, the Board of Supervisors took up the issue. As is their custom, they began the meeting at 2pm to prevent public attendance. Despite this inconvenience, the hall was packed, with about 100 people in the “overfill” lobby. With the exception of one useful idiot, every single attendee was supportive of Tyson’s recommendation. Passion, eloquence, and integrity were all on one side. It made no difference.

The Board said no, and gave us instead an investigative committee filled with its appointees.

The Board secretly betrayed us, and then openly defied us. Your very betrayers pretend they can reassure you with an investigation conducted by its hand-picked men, adding further insult to their provocation. But it’s worse—these won’t truly be its hand-picked men, they will be Google’s.

Lackeys and Stooges

Now we return to where we began. It is impossible to believe that the Board could appoint an unbiased committee without exposing themselves to liability when Google is entitled to “manage all media and press relation services regarding the Company’s involvement with the County and the Authority.” It is impossible to doubt, given this language, that Google will vet each member. It is impossible to imagine that Tim Snyder will develop integrity and circumspection, or Walt Michael and Brandon Nicely intelligence, or Gary Larrowe humanity. These are lackeys and stooges, not men.

And, perhaps most critically, it was impossible that Google should allow a water study to be undertaken by a planning commission with two members not under their NDA. Any honest study would disclose what Google has already acknowledged in its contract with the Water Authority:

“the Day 1 Solution exceeds (i) the current water supply capacity available to the Property utilizing the Authority’s existing infrastructure and (ii) the future water supply capacity available to the Property under the Authority’s current long-range planning for water supply capacity…”

The planning commission had to be denied its study, not because it’s incapable–it’s customary for commissions to undertake such studies pursuant to Va. Code § 15.2-2217–but because two of its members are not beholden to Google.

Botetourt, your local government has willingly made itself the creature of a foreign corporation. Google’s ridiculous flunkies have managed to manufacture a constitutional crisis, with the highest of stakes. Vampire Pimps was putting it rather nicely.

“Article I. Bill of Rights

Section 3. Government instituted for common benefit

That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and, whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.”