Hanover Humane Society says data center's construction noise is hurting dogs, warehouse plan raises new alarms

HANOVER COUNTY, Va. — The Hanover Humane Society says noise from construction near a data center is disrupting operations and frightening dogs at its facility. The organization is also concerned a proposed warehouse complex could bring additional construction noise to the area.

Andrew Paine has spent almost 20 years at the Hanover Humane Society helping match hundreds of dogs with the right homes. He says the facility's dog walking trail sits just steps from a data center built by Oppidan Investment Company — and the experience there has changed.

"It's not peaceful anymore," Paine said.

The trail runs directly alongside the construction and the data center itself.

"This is the main trail that comes on around from the house and lines on back through here and you can see how close they put it to us," Paine said.

The noise is relentless during construction hours. "This is all day long while the construction's going on," Paine said adding that the sound levels cross a threshold that can cause real harm to dogs.

"Just the normal noise level from them is, you know, around 80-85 decibels, which is that's right at the threshold for dogs where it starts causing pain," Paine said.

For Paine, the stakes are high. The dogs arriving at the humane society are already in a fragile state. "The dogs are already traumatized when we get them. I mean, they've, they've been neglected, abused, abandoned," Paine said.

The trail is a key part of their healing.

"It helps, and it helps socialize them and, and de-stress them and just get them used to being with people, teach them how to walk on a leash, and that, that's a big thing for dogs, just a change of pace," Paine said.

But Paine says the data center already in operation is not his biggest concern. It is what Oppidan Investment Company is proposing next: two even larger warehouses nearby.

"Come to find out they're going to build these two enormous truck warehouses back here and that all the truck, the heavy commercial truck traffic is going to be using this road right here just a few feet off of our property," Paine said.

We reached out to Oppidan Investment Company and received a statement that reads: "We recognize that the dogs at Hanover Humane Society need a calm, caring environment where they can feel safe, and we take concerns about their well-being seriously. We are beginning conversations with the Humane Society and have offered to build a fence along our shared property line to help reduce noise. Those conversations will continue throughout the planning and development process as we listen to the organization’s concerns and work together to identify ways to minimize potential disruption to the animals in its care."

With the warehouse project requiring county approval, Paine says the county and the developer need to keep their neighbors in mind.

"Either the road's going to need to be moved or they're going to need some type of permanent engineered, you know, sound and visual, you know, mitigation, it'd be a pretty, have to be a pretty substantial wall," Paine said.

The Hanover Humane Society is scheduled to speak at an Ashland town hall meeting Tuesday and will meet with the developer directly on Thursday, ahead of a community meeting hosted by the developer

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