After Tuesday, Prince William County’s data center landscape may never be the same.
The Board of County Supervisors is set to tackle a crucial data center vote Tuesday afternoon during its 2 p.m. afternoon session with sweeping implications for the industry’s future in the county — specifically with regards to the county’s Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District.
The imminent vote on a zoning text amendment downsizing the overlay is on the agenda as a public hearing, having been fast-tracked by county planning staff over the past several months.
The amendment, a pivotal measure initiated by the Board of County Supervisors on June 9, seeks to eliminate all by-right data center development moving forward, ensuring that future county data center projects come before the board for final consideration via a special use permit.
In March, Brentsville Supervisor Tom Gordy issued his original directive spearheading the amendment, by which data centers already built or being built in the county, as well as those already with a site plan that has passed the quality control threshold, would remain in the overlay.
The overlay district allows data centers to be built by-right within its parameters. The countywide amendment would drastically shrink the size and scope of the overlay from its originally adopted form, which dates back over a decade to May 2016.
The Planning Commission backed the proposal during its Sept. 9 meeting while also favoring a 120-day grace period for the county’s reduced Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District.
According to a county staffer familiar with the proceedings, the commission’s recommendations to the board on the overlay are by no means binding.
“I would look at this more akin to a normal planning case,” the staffer said, “and in a normal planning case, the Planning Commission is purely advisory and so there will not be a vote on their recommendations.”
On Tuesday, the eight supervisors will, by all indications, vote on Gordy’s original zoning text amendment proposal — a 90-day grace period and no buffer — with a traditional “motion to approve” and the typical legislative process.
On Sept. 9, initial 4-4 stalemates among the commission’s eight members on both no grace period, with immediate incorporation, and a six-month alternative spearheaded consensus on a four-month compromise.
Occoquan District Commissioner Raheel Sheikh, one of the four initial holdouts, changed his “no” vote to a “yay” before the final tally — allowing the 120-day time frame to pass by a 5-3 vote and be recommended to the board.
Woodbridge Commissioner Brian Landrum proposed mandating a 500-foot buffer from residential areas and schools for future data center applications to accompany the 180-day grace period.
The commission remained at an impasse on separate votes for 180 days and a 500-foot buffer, as well as zero days and a 2,500-foot buffer, before Sheikh shifted his stance, for a compromise at 120 days and 500 feet.
“We had so much discussion on it,” Sheikh said from the dais on Sept. 9. “For this to get to the board, I think I’m going to say ‘yes.’ I think it’s a good compromise.”
As written, Gordy’s original zoning text amendment proposal will indeed come before the board on Tuesday as a formal agenda item containing the commission’s recommendations.
InsideNoVa has learned from multiple sources that the setback is unlikely to be broached at Tuesday’s meeting and will be tabled to a later date, since the setback has not been formally incorporated as a legal addition to the zoning text amendment.
The staffer said another future, board-initiated zoning text amendment will likely be needed to tackle the buffering issue — in order to resolve more granular issues such as the potential grandfathering of existing data centers or the “nonconforming uses” that may otherwise result.
Tuesday’s amendment would not abolish the overlay, as such a measure would create those nonconforming use issues.
Rather, the zoning text amendment seeks to ensure that — if the amendment passes — all future county data center projects must come before the board for final consideration via a special use permit.
Around 55 residents turned out for a Sept. 17 town hall at the Nokesville Volunteer Fire Department hosted by Chair Deshundra Jefferson, Gordy and Coles District Supervisor Yesli Vega.
The event addressed resident concerns with forthcoming Dominion Energy transmission lines in the county as well as plans for the data center overlay. Jefferson and Gordy did the vast majority of the speaking while Vega took extensive notes.
Also attending the town hall were Gainesville Commissioner Blake Ross, as well as Jacob Giovia, director of projects and land use for the Potomac District under Supervisor Andrea Bailey; and a representative from the Gainesville District office under Supervisor George Stewart.
Residents also requested clarity on the board’s controversial Vint Hill gas-insulated substation vote, scheduled for Tuesday’s evening session. The board deferred the project on June 23.
The Coalition to Protect Prince William County is organizing a rally against the Vint Hill substation Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the James J. McCoart Building at the county government complex in Woodbridge. State Sen. Danica Roem is scheduled to attend alongside Del. Elizabeth Guzmán, members of the local Save Braemar Coalition and others.
Dominion is seeking to upgrade its existing 230-kilovolt switching station at 13405 Vint Hill Road in Nokesville into a larger, gas-insulated substation with added 500-kilovolt equipment.
Kim Sullins, a Gainesville resident who lives within the bounds of the Brentsville District, asked Gordy directly about an approach she deemed “deliberately obtuse” on the part of Dominion.
Sullins said she remained unsatisfied with the utility company’s comments at a recent open house covering its “Warrenton-Wheeler-Gainesville” 230-kilovolt transmission line and the Vint Hill gas-insulated substation.
“They were unable or unwilling to answer a lot of specific questions,” Sullins told InsideNoVa of Dominion following the town hall. “Things that are basic that would be obviously part of their application, such as what is the noise level difference going to be along the transmission line route that’s going to run closest to the homes in our community. How much more noise? How much more EMF [electromagnetic fields] is there going to be?”
Jefferson mirrored that sentiment.
“Dominion is not responsible to us because they don’t work for us,” the chair told the crowd. “They don’t report to us, and that’s part of the issue that we have.”
Gordy said the county “is power-constrained,” verbally promising a “no” vote against the substation on Tuesday.
“There is no silver bullet to this,” Gordy said. “We are working through a process, and that’s what we are working on.”
The Brentsville supervisor noted the 2027 General Assembly session will be critical for the county’s ability to assert its authority more broadly. He said “land flippers,” or developers, have undertaken most of the county’s data center sprawl in recent months.
“Right now,” Gordy said, “I will tell you that no data center company has filed an application in well over two years, because there’s no power … The data center companies themselves have realized that we have data centers that are built, but can’t turn on because they don’t have power. We have data center sites that have been approved for years but can’t find a buyer because they can’t get power.”
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