The Data Center Standards and Locations Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinance Amendment (CPAM/ZOAM) is up for public input. The county released draft text for the amendments and held public informational open houses at the end of September. This is Phase 2 of the Data Center CPAM/ ZOAM. For more information, visit our CPAM/ZOAM webpage.
On October 6th, the Board of Supervisors (BoS) will hear from staff on the feasibility of rescinding the 2025 grandfathering resolution awarded to data center applications that had been submitted before Phase 1 of the Data Center Standards and Locations CPAM/ZOAM which eliminated by-right (no required legislative review) data center development in the county. This initiative was originally proposed by Supervisors TeKrony and Briskman in September, asking that the 20 active applications that are currently being processed as by-right through the administrative process instead be processed as legislative so that they face increased scrutiny by county staff, the Board of Supervisors, and the public at large.
The BoS will be making the vote on October 20 to confirm the county-level data center approval pause. At the September 15, 2026 Board of Supervisors business meeting, the BoS voted to approve a resolution to consider halting approval of legislative data center applications for the next year. Reasoning for this consideration hinged upon the changes being made for how data centers can be designed and operated in the county as part of the above CPAM/ZOAM. Under this policy, data center legislative applications would still be allowed to be submitted, and would still be reviewed by the Planning Commission, but the BoS would make no final decisions on implementation for the maximum time currently allowed by state law: 12 months.
On the topic of state law, conversations are continuing about pushing Virginia to enact a statewide Data Center Moratorium. We expect that this will be a key topic in the upcoming General Assembly, especially after the recent executive order from Governor Spanberger on the Virginia Data Center Accountability Framework. Public calls for the statewide moratorium continue, and the Piedmont Environmental Council are partnering with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network to organize a series or rallies across the state to send a message to Governor Spanberger and the legislature that the time for a moratorium on this industry is now. The Leesburg March for a Moratorium will be October 17th (1pm at the Loudoun County Courthouse), and we hope you’ll join our partners to show your support for the effort.
Spring Valley Technology Park is a potential giant data center campus proposing to have onsite power generation that would result in the destruction of 342 acres of mature forest near Goose Creek in the Transition Policy Area. This application received an unprecedented unanimous recommendation of denial after a massive public turnout of opposition at the Planning Commission. It was set to go before the BoS for public hearing on October 14, but has been indefinitely deferred at the request of the applicant. Stay tuned on our current campaigns page for this project to see when the next action will be taken.
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