Passed by the Board of Directors 4 to 1… Restriction of area to PCID districts such as Vint Hill
Reflecting concerns about burden on power grid and environmental pollution… Special approval required for new applications
Excluding business park use, requiring underground power lines and eco-friendly cooling methods
Fauquier County, Virginia, approved a new zoning ordinance amendment that significantly restricts data center development, putting a brake on the rapid increase in data center construction.
The Fauquier County Board of Supervisors last met. Through a vote on the 8th, the amendment to the use area, which strictly limits the area where new data centers can be developed, to 'planned commercial and industrial districts (PCID)' was passed with 4 votes in favor and 1 vote against.
The key to this amendment is that the use of data centers was completely deleted from the 'Business Park (BP)' district, where data center locations were previously permitted. Accordingly, future data center development in Fauquier County will be extremely limited to the Vint Hill area, which is the only PCID-designated area in the county.
In a report to the board of directors, county working-level staff explained the background for strengthening regulations by saying, "There is no area suitable for data center development other than the PCID-designated area," and "In the projects that have been promoted so far, various problems such as power grid load, proximity to residential areas, and environmental destruction have been continuously raised." In fact, only one of the data center projects promoted within the business park district was approved and construction is in progress, and the remaining eight were withdrawn due to opposition from residents.
According to the revised ordinance, even if it is within the PCID district, in order to build a new data center, a separate 'Special Exception' must be obtained from the county authorities. The amendment also specified that data centers must be "secondary facilities" that blend in with existing commercial, leisure, and light industrial facilities, and mandated the adoption of closed-loop or air-cooled cooling systems that reduce cooling water consumption and the installation of underground power lines.
Supervisor Daron Culbertson, who was the only vote against, said, "I agree that agricultural conservation and agriculture should be the center of the county, but it also requires securing tax revenue and the local economy." He expressed regret, saying, "It was necessary to attract a data center in a responsible manner for development.
Meanwhile, this zoning change does not apply retroactively to the three projects that have been approved or are in the process of being approved, including OVHcloud, which is already in operation.