The Northern Virginia locality with the most data centers in the commonwealth is set to consider a plan to pause new data center and substation applications for one year.
At its meeting Tuesday, Loudoun County’s Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on a resolution being referred to as a “Legislative Pause on Data Center and Substation Applications.”
The proposal would prevent the Board of Supervisors from acting on any legislative application that proposes or would allow for a data center or substation, retroactively effective Sept. 15, 2026. It includes exceptions for projects aimed at improving grid reliability.
The step comes after elected officials approved a plan directing county staff to draft a resolution for the pause during a meeting last month.
The idea isn’t considered a moratorium, which Loudoun’s lawyers said wouldn’t be legal. Instead, it’s a push to slow data center growth in the suburb with over 200 of them.
“If it brings them to the table to renegotiate some of what’s going on, then that’s fine,” Loudoun resident Edward Facundo told WTOP. “It’s not that we don’t want data centers. I think that needs to be done in a way that makes sense for the county and makes sense for the people that live here.”
Supporters of the data center industry argue the tech hubs bring jobs and generate tax revenue for communities.
Loudoun’s elected officials said the pause is necessary so the county can finish creating rules overseeing the industry and ensuring surrounding neighborhoods are protected.
“Just driving through Ashburn and some of these places, they’re an eyesore,” Loudoun resident Stephanie Fulbright said in Sterling on Monday afternoon. “They add no beauty or anything to our community, and fortunately, I don’t have to live with it in my backyard. But a lot of people do.”
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The proposal would pause consideration of an application for a year from the time it’s filed.
There are currently 33 active legislative applications for data centers or substations, according to county documents. One is solely a grid-reliability substation.
Under the draft plan, projects considered “grid reliability” substations can still advance through the process. Those are defined in the resolution as electrical substations that meet a specific set of criteria.
Kathy Kadane, who said she’s lived in Loudoun since 1990, said she supports the yearlong pause, because “if the federal government right now is too dysfunctional to regulate Big Tech in all its various forms, then I think the counties and states have to step up.”
Jareer Elass, meanwhile, said the pause is necessary because data centers are “taking up valuable land. It’s a drain on our resources, and it’s AI, and I’m anti-AI.”
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