Loudoun Board of Supervisors passes data center zoning amendments

By Katie Northcott

At its business meeting on March 18, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors passed zoning amendments that will provide more oversight to data center development in the county.

The Board of Supervisors began discussions about changing data center zoning ordinances in the spring of 2022. At its Feb. 6, 2024, business meeting, the Board approved the project plan for a joint Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPAM) and Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOAM). The project plan split the project into two phases. The Data Center Standards and Locations CPAM and ZOAM are part of phase one.

The amendments would make it more difficult for developers to obtain approval for new data centers. Data centers would be designated as a conditional use in three place types where they are currently a core use and as a special exception use in three place types where they are currently a permitted use by-right.

The Board passed the CPAM and ZOAM with a 7-2 vote with Supervisors Caleb Kershner (R-Catoctin) and Kristen Umstattd (D-Leesburg) opposing the motion.

“I think a lot of folks came to this county. They sought to use our zoning ordinance, and now some of them are losing out. Some of them have had millions of dollars of investment and are going to be losing that investment, no doubt, to some degree,” Kershner said. “I think this industry, if we continue down this path, will ultimately leave Loudoun County.”

In response to Kershner and Umstattd’s comments, Chair Phyllis Randall (D-At Large) spoke about the possible devaluation of residents’ homes due to proximity to data centers.

“I say, ‘This is what it does for your tax rate,’ and they say, ‘I don’t care.’ I have people say, ‘I will pay more. Stop building these.’ At some point, we just cannot ignore the voice of the people,” Randall said. “No one can say that a county that has the vast majority of the world’s data centers is not friendly to data centers.”

During the March 18 meeting, the Board heard 23 public comments on the zoning amendments and 20 public comments on power lines. After the input sessions ended, 27 speakers remained on the waiting list to address the Board.

The zoning amendments themselves were not very controversial. Most speakers addressed their comments toward a grandfathering resolution. The resolution allows data center developers that had applications approved before Feb. 12, 2025, to continue building. As of Dec. 1, 2024, 59.7 million square feet of data center development was in the pipeline for Loudoun County.

Prior to the March 18 meeting, the Loudoun Transmission Line Alliance and Piedmont Environmental Council sent emails to Loudoun residents prior to the meeting, encouraging residents to speak against the grandfathering resolution at the meeting. Additionally, Senator Russet Perry used her social media accounts to encourage Loudoun residents to oppose grandfathering.

“Grandfathering in these data centers means no public input, no hearings, no transparency,” Perry said.

Randall responded to Perry’s comments during the Mar. 18 meeting, saying she took personal offense.

“I take transparency and public comments very, very seriously,” Randall said. “And if somebody wants to have a discussion about how by-right administrative applications are done, we can have that discussion. But to say we’re not transparent is just wrong on its face.”

Loudoun residents responded to the call for public speakers, and the Board heard over 40 speakers at its March 18 meeting. Thirteen speakers spoke in favor of grandfathering, three spoke favorably of data centers, eight spoke against grandfathering and the expansion of the data center industry within Loudoun County, and 19 spoke against the Golden to Mars transmission lines.

Those in favor of grandfathering and growing the data center industry in Loudoun County mentioned benefits like lower tax rates, environmental benefits, and economic stability. Many speakers were concerned that failure to adopt a grandfathering policy would be unfair to businesses that had already invested much of their time and money into Loudoun County, deterring future data center developers from building in Loudoun.

Theo Stamatis, representing the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce, explained that Loudoun County administrators plan to set the fiscal year 2026 property tax at the lowest rate in Northern Virginia. Additionally, the vehicle tax rate will decrease, and the school board’s budget will be fully funded. According to Stamatis, none of this would be possible without the data center industry in Loudoun County.

“The prosperity and stability we enjoy today in large part is a result of the historical and continued investment from data centers,” said Matt Leslie, a resident of the Catoctin District. “Grandfathering is a fundamental commitment to fairness, ensuring that businesses that have invested in good faith under existing rules can proceed with certainty.”

Those opposed to grandfathering cited concerns such as health, lack of economic diversity in Loudoun County, and decreasing home values. One homeowner, Patricia Steggerda, brought a diagram to show how close one data center was slated to be built to her backyard. She said the data center would be barely 500 feet from her home.

“That will be very detrimental to all of our homes. And to our health, to the noise, to the light, everything,” Steggerda said. “This is one of the closest applications of the county that are going to be near the residents’ homes. It’s not right.”

Loudoun County resident Colleen David expressed concerns about data centers’ electromagnetic fields and their impacts on health, saying that the long-term impact of electromagnetic fields has yet to be researched conclusively. She called on the Board to represent and advocate for Loudoun County residents.

 “It is my firm understanding that the data center developers have engaged highly paid representatives and advocates that have one goal in mind: gain the approval of the projects by whatever means possible,” David said. “Therefore, if the majority of the county’s residents believe we have more than enough data centers, why are the individuals who are chartered to represent our interests entertaining exceptions and waivers on already agreed upon zoning assignments?”

During the Board’s discussion about grandfathering, Randall addressed the data center community. She said it was problematic that the Board was even having discussions about data centers being so close to homes.

“For years, the kind of handshake agreement was that we would say ‘yes’ to data centers all day long, as long as they weren’t near residences and in bucolic corridors and things like that,” Randall said. “We talk a lot about how much it costs for a data center to put an application in and what they do and all the things they go to. And we should talk about that. It’s a lot of money. But I’m not going to value a data center over a person’s home.”

Randall admonished leaders in the data center industry to police their community better. She said some data center developers get it “spot on correct” while others motivate these kinds of discussions.

The supervisors passed the grandfathering resolution with a 5-4 vote with Vice Chair Michael Turner (D-Ashburn) and Supervisors Sylvia Glass (D-Broad Run), Laura TeKrony (D-Little River), and Juli Briskman (D-Algonkian) opposed.

“I think it’s just a matter of time,” Kershner said. “It won’t happen next year; it won’t happen five years from now; it might not even happen seven, eight, nine years from now. But I think this industry, if we continue down this path, will ultimately leave Loudoun County.”