Loudoun BOS approves Phase 2 of data center plan

By Sophia Clifton

At their Sept. 16, business meeting, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted 8-0-1 to approve the Data Center Standards and Locations Phase 2 Project Plan, with Supervisor Kristen Umstattd (D-Leesburg) opposing the motion. The move launches the second phase of a multi-year effort to update how new data centers—and the substations and backup power that serve them—are evaluated and regulated in Loudoun.

“Phase two is anticipated to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2026, with a final board action potentially occurring in December 2026. “However, I would like to emphasize that any delay in approving the project plan or the addition of any extra work session may push the timeline into 2027,” Project Manager Abdul Jaffari told the Board. 

According to the county’s project description, Phase 2’s focus will be on amendments to the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinance that address emerging industry needs and site impacts.  “For this project, we’re focusing on supporting staff and the board as they evaluate data center applications by addressing compatibility concerns through the special exception process,” Jaffari told supervisors. Staff emphasized they will evaluate whether impacts “are best managed through policy, zoning regulations, or a case by case conditions of approval or a combination of these tools,” and will consider the industry’s evolving operational needs.

Phase 2 will look at land-use policy and zoning text updates including clearer definitions of substations, building and site design guidance, landscaping and buffering, parking and aesthetics, and operational matters like noise, lighting, on-site power generation and energy storage. “Most importantly, we want to make sure that any new rules do not place an unintended burden on existing data centers or limit opportunities for positive redevelopment and investment,” Jaffari said.

He clarified one important scoping point: “Phase 2 does not have a mapping component,” meaning the work will be focused on policy and ordinance text rather than drawing new map-based place-type boundaries.

Loudoun is a national hub for data centers, with a large cluster commonly called “Data Center Alley.” Rapid growth over the last decade prompted Phase 1 changes earlier in 2025 that made data centers a conditional use in many industrial zoning districts—meaning projects would require a special-use permit rather than being allowed automatically. Phase 2 continues that trajectory, refining standards so new proposals are balanced against neighborhood and environmental concerns.

“The commission also recommended maintaining flexibility in both the scope of their resolution of intent to end the zoning ordinance and the development of related policies and regulation,” staff noted, summarizing Planning Commission input. TLUC, the county’s Transportation and Land Use Committee, had previously highlighted “aesthetics, visual impacts, and noise associated with data centers and substations.”

A focal point of the Board’s Sept. 16 discussion was Loudoun’s Transition Policy Area (TPA)— portion of the county intended to remain lower-intensity than heavy industrial zones—and an earlier economic development study that identified a large area south of Rt. 50 called “Dulles Cloud South.” Several supervisors argued Phase 2 should make clear that data centers do not belong in the TPA.

“I do believe that the TPA was never meant … to have data centers or have heavy industrial,” Chair Phyllis Randall (D-At Large) said. Several board members pushed for the motion adopted on Sept. 16 to “add a policy to the Loudoun County 2019 General Plan clarifying that data centers’ uses should not encroach in the areas of the Transition Policy Area outside the transition light industrial and the transition industrial mineral extraction place types.”

Supervisor TeKrony (D-Little River) framed the vote as drawing “a hard line on the encroachment of data centers into the Transition Policy Area. It sends a message to the data center developers that there will be no exceptions at all.” She warned of the scale of what was once proposed for Dulles Cloud South: “It would have enabled 56 million square feet of data center space south of Route 50. Just so you know the magnitude of what was being proposed.”

Staff and some supervisors said calling out Dulles Cloud South by name in the Plan was unnecessary because the proposed policy language already excludes the TPA’s non-industrial place types. 

“I don’t think it is necessary to call it out by name in any fashion, and I do think that the language and direction provided in the current motion also covers that in its language because that area is not in one of the two place types mentioned in the motion,” Supervisor Koran Saines (D-Sterling) responded during the meeting. Randall echoed that view: “I think that this covers that as far as I am concerned.”

Loudoun County attorney Leo Rogers clarified a practical implication: if the Board adopted the motion, “the board would have a justifiable basis for turning down that application” for data centers in Dulles Cloud South even before Phase 2 remains finalized—meaning the motion helps provide immediate enforcement footing against encroachment.

Board discussion also flagged several technical topics that staff will continue to study closely. Supervisors urged the noise analysis to be narrowly tailored to data centers rather than applied countywide: “I do think the noise study, the noise analysis that we’re doing should be data center focused only. Not for the entire county,” TeKrony said.

Vice Chair Michael Turner (D-Ashburn) suggested the county consider broader green-building standards in its draft language: “We only talk about lead, silver or gold as building certification. And I had wanted to include a supplemental standard now in the industry. It’s called the Green Building Initiative … It’s a much more extensive environmental analysis of a facility that’s being built. And I would like to, if we can, include that as a possibility in the language, as we draft phase two, that can be one of the rating standards that we can apply,” Turner said.

Staff also noted that Phase 2 will review whether to regulate onsite power generation and battery energy storage systems, and the definition and visual impacts of electrical substations. 

With Phase 2 now approved, staff will draft Zoning Ordinance and Comprehensive Plan text amendments, hold public outreach and informational sessions, and schedule Planning Commission and final Board hearings throughout 2026. 

For Loudoun residents, Phase 2 aims to keep the county’s economic benefits from data center investment while adding clearer rules to protect neighborhoods, limit visual and noise impacts, and manage utility needs.