LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA – Amazon has filed plans for a new by-right data center on property it purchased from George Washington University in Loudoun's Algonkian district, and Supervisor Juli Briskman has already announced plans to fight the application.
According to Briskman, whose district includes the property, Amazon has applied to build four data centers totaling 800,000 square feet on the 122-acre campus it purchased in March, the GW Hatchet reported.
Briskman noted in a statement on Thursday that the by-right application was filed without a public hearing or vote by the Board of Supervisors, which isn't required for by-right permits, and said she would use every tool available to challenge the proposal.
"I strongly oppose this proposal and have long worked to curtail data center development in Loudoun County, where proposed data centers on properties within the Route 28 tax district have been permitted to proceed by-right under the 1972 Zoning Ordinance following a zoning determination that was issued in 2000. This year, I initiated the process of transitioning properties governed by the 1972 Zoning Ordinance into the 2023 Zoning Ordinance after the tax district is terminated in December. Under the modern ordinance, data centers are not allowed by-right and must pursue a Special Exception process that includes public hearings and a vote by the Board of Supervisors. I also support the review of that 26-year-old zoning determination which developers have leveraged to build data centers where the county originally envisioned office development," she wrote.
On the same day, Teresa Miller, Loudoun County's zoning administrator, issued an opinion stating that the 26-year-old ordinance Briskman references, likening data center uses to offices, is obsolete, the Washington Business Journal reports. The county's economic development director had requested the opinion.
What this means for specific data center applications or developments is not yet clear.
Elsewhere in Northern Virginia, Amazon has been laying off workers and is lagging behind hiring goals it set when the company chose the state for its second headquarters, after being offered as much as $750 million in taxpayer-funded subsidies under then-Governor Ralph Northam.
In the meantime, Loudoun County residents have been increasingly upset about air and noise pollution they say is caused by data centers and their generators, and the upheaval caused by building new transmission lines across the county.
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