Proposal could send more than 20 pending applications through public review process

Two Loudoun supervisors are seeking to end a 2025 policy that allows certain pending data center projects to continue through the County’s administrative approval process without public hearings or a vote by the Board of Supervisors.

Supervisors Juli Briskman (D-Algonkian) and Laura TeKrony (D-Little River) plan to introduce an initiative at the Board’s Sept. 1 business meeting directing County staff to prepare an amendment that would immediately expire the County’s 2025 Data Center Grandfathering Resolution upon adoption.

More than 20 administrative data center applications were identified as eligible to continue through the by-right approval process under that resolution.

The Board adopted the grandfathering resolution March 18, 2025, on a 5-4 vote, with Briskman, TeKrony and Supervisors Michael Turner and Sylvia Glass opposed.

It was adopted alongside Phase 1 of the County’s Data Center Standards and Locations initiative, which generally ended by-right data center development for new applications. Proposed data centers subject to the new rules must instead obtain a Special Exception, which includes public review and a final vote by the Board.

The grandfathering resolution, however, allowed certain data center site plans and amendments already in the pipeline to continue under the previous administrative process.

Briskman and TeKrony now want that exception ended.

“We should no longer permit administrative data center projects to move forward by-right when the County has already determined that they deserve greater scrutiny,” Briskman said. “It is time to bring these applications into the public process and give residents a meaningful opportunity to be heard.”

Briskman attempted to make a similar change when the grandfathering resolution was adopted last year.

At the March 18, 2025, meeting, she introduced a motion to remove administrative applications from the grandfathering resolution, which would have required those projects to go through public hearings and receive a final Board vote.

The motion failed 4-5, with Supervisors Matt Letourneau, Caleb Kershner, Phyllis Randall, Koran Saines and Kristen Umstattd opposed.

TeKrony said the continuing expansion of data centers and the electrical infrastructure needed to serve them has placed increasing pressure on communities.

“Loudoun’s electric grid and community are at a breaking point. Residents have had enough of data center sprawl, which is causing unsightly power lines and substations to be built all over the County, near homes and schools and encroaching into our transition and rural policy areas,” she said.

TeKrony has opposed grandfathering data center applications and has raised concerns about earlier grandfathering policies that allow some by-right data centers within 500 feet of residential communities. In February 2024, she also successfully sought to add electrical substations to the County’s Data Center Standards and Locations work plan.

Briskman has advocated for tighter restrictions on data center development since taking office in 2020. In 2021, she proposed remapping areas of the county to more clearly establish where data centers should and should not be permitted, an effort that helped lead to the ongoing Data Center Standards and Locations initiative.

The issue has grown considerably as Loudoun’s data center industry has expanded.

According to the supervisors’ release, Loudoun currently has more than 250 data centers and approximately 53 million square feet of data center development—more than twice the amount recorded in 2021.

The industry generates more than $1 billion annually in local tax revenue, but its rapid growth has also intensified debate over electrical transmission lines and substations, noise, health concerns, environmental impacts, utility costs and the amount of land devoted to data center development.

The County is now working on Phase 2 of its Data Center Standards and Locations initiative, which is expected to conclude in spring 2027.

The Sept. 1 proposal is not the only potential data center policy change headed to the Board.

In July, Briskman won Board support for an initiative directing County staff to examine whether Loudoun could temporarily pause data center applications while Phase 2 is underway. County staff and legal counsel are expected to present that proposal and a legal analysis to the Board Sept. 15.

If the grandfathering initiative moves forward Sept. 1, County staff would be directed to prepare the amendment for future Board consideration.