Data Center Policy To Be Discussed At 2 Open House Meetings In Loudoun County

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA – The Loudoun County government has announced two upcoming open house meetings in September on the county’s overhaul of its data center policies and regulations.

“Members of the public are encouraged to attend one of two upcoming open houses on the Loudoun County Data Center Standards and Locations planning and zoning project,” the county wrote in a social media announcement.

The first open house will be held at Broad Run High School in Ashburn on Monday, Sept. 28, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The second will be at the Douglass Community Center in Leesburg on Wednesday, Sept. 30 at the same time. The county says the meetings will be identical in format.

In 2024, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors launched a project to review and update policies and standards for data center and electrical substation uses. Phase one was approved in March 2025 and focused on amendments to the county’s 2019 Comprehensive Plan and its Zoning Ordinance, and included effectively ending by-right data center development in the county, except for some projects that had already been approved. Phase two, which will be discussed at the open houses, “will focus on establishing new potential policy guidance and new use-specific zoning standards for data centers and utility substations,” the county says.

Data centers have become a hugely controversial issue in Virginia and across the country, with citizens organizing to push local governments to curb data center sprawl. Loudoun County is currently in the middle of battles over transmission line routes residents say will power data centers, not homes.

On Friday, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger announced a new data center accountability framework for the state, with new requirements encompassing boosting transparency, protecting the environment, lowering energy costs, bolstering the state’s energy grid and clean energy economy and delivering broadly shared value for the state’s workforce.