MANASSAS, VA – The Prince William County Planning Commission voted earlier in September to recommend that the county impose a stricter approval process for data center development in the county.
On Sept. 9, the commission voted 5-3 to amend the county's zoning regulations to require that any new data centers be built at least 500 feet from homes and schools, far more than the current buffer zone of 50 feet. It would also shrink the county's "data center opportunity zone overlay district," an area in which data centers of a certain size can be built by-right, meaning without public hearings and approval by the board of supervisors. According to the Prince William Times, the district would be shrunk from about 9,700 acres to 3,500 acres and would only include land within its boundaries where data centers are already built or where applications for data centers have been filed and accepted.
The commission was divided over how long a grace period to extend to prospective data center developers, with half the commissioners preferring an extended grace period of 180 days and half wishing to remove any grace period altogether. Planning Commissioner Quendolyn Brown thanked the group for the "robust discussion." Ultimately, the measure that passed included a 120-day period in which developers can refile their plans to comply with new regulations after Occoquan Commissioner Raheel Sheikh, who had wanted to eliminate the grace period, voted to pass the "good compromise" in order to advance it to the Board of Supervisors for their next meeting.
Opponents of data center development have recently successfully blocked or overturned data center projects as public opinion turns against the industry.
Read more from the Prince William Times here.
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