LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — As Loudoun County officials give more scrutiny to data centers, the Board of Supervisors rejected a new data center campus in Ashburn Wednesday. A smaller by-right data center is permitted, however.
The proposal concerned the Belmont data center campus on 111 acres south of Route 7 across Belmont Ridge Road from homes to the east and bordering Goose Creek to the west. Data centers are considered conditional uses in these suburban employment place type areas due to impacts on surrounding residences.
The denial came through a 5-4 vote. Supervisors voting for data center application denial were Chair Phyllis Randall, Ashburn District Supervisor Michael Turner, Algonkian District Supervisor Juli Briskman, Broad Run District Supervisor Sylvia Glass and Little Run District Supervisor Laura TeKrony. Those voting against the application denial were Sterling District Supervisor Koran Saines, Dulles District Supervisor Matthew Letourneau, Catocin District Supervisor Caleb Kershner and Leesburg District Supervisor Kristen Umstattd.
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Even though the application was denied for up to 2.9 million square feet of data center and 989,000 of industrial uses, county staff said 1.3 million square feet can be developed by right. The original proposal was revised from 4.8 million square feet to 2.9 million. Another by-right allowance is the ability to build substations. Two substations were proposed in the application.
Some supervisors noted the proffer commitments from the developer were positives but preferred the by-right data center allowance over the larger proposed one.
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“As is evidenced by the number of speakers tonight, the people of Loudoun are asking us to take closer looks at the impact of data centers on our county,” said Glass. “This application for increased data center footage is not compatible with the residential across the street. I regular hear from constituents who already live near data centers about several issues, and I cannot support allowing a larger data center to be built directly across the street from existing residential.”
Saines had introduced a motion to approve the data center application but amended it to defer consideration until April. That deferral motion failed 5-4.
Saines said a data center would be permitted either way but that an approval beyond by right would bring benefits solar panels to put energy back into the grid. He noted the Belmost Homeowners Association’s support due to the proffers in the application.
“With the by right use, they don’t have to do all those things,” said Saines. “I wish data center applications, homeowner developers, even when they have a by right use, would do the right thing and come with a very, very good application. But legally, they don’t have to do those things.”
While the solar panels weren’t intended to power the entire data center, the applicant estimated the solar panels could power 150 to 250 homes.
The data center proposal drew numerous public speakers for hours of testimony. Opposed residents cited concerns like energy usage environmental impacts, aesthetics, and the significant growth of data centers over the last few decades.
“They started out proposing Loudoun County’s biggest data center ever, the size of 40 or 45 Home Depots and would have expanded data center square footage and energy demand by 15 or 20 percent in this one building alone and would have consumed as much power as many, many thousands of houses,” said resident John Benedict. “By any measure, it still remains huge [at 2.9 million square feet]. It still demands too much power in an area with too many large data centers already. It would be triple the size of many of the largest recent data centers and 20 times the size of some of the earliest ones that were built only 15 years ago.”
Benjamin Winn of the Goose Creek Scenic River Advisory Committee spoke in support of the data center proposal, noting the developer proposed a buffer to the creek beyond the 300-foot requirement, preserving the historic are near the creek and doing water quality monitoring.
“This one is very valuable to us because in addition to being an additional buffer, it will help decrease the visibility of the power lines that do have to run through this property to get to Vantage, a site that is already well under construction,” said Winn. “Further, we’re going to have access by county parks to the creek, likely a trail along the creek, which will increase the recreational value of the creek.”
Theo Stamatis of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce spoke in favor of data centers, saying a pause would damage the business community.
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“We cannot allow Loudoun’s reputation to be damaged as a business-friendly community and the millions of taxpayer dollars that have been invested in creating that positive image. Many of the large job creators in Northern Virginia have data centers in Loudoun, and these companies employ thousands of Loudoun residents,” said Stamatis. “This industry supports thousands of jobs in the trades and support services. The negative economic ripple effect including jobs lost on even the contemplation of a pause on data center applications will fall the most heavily on the working class and small businesses.”
Loudoun County is home to the largest concentration of data centers with the most located around Ashburn. In February, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted to kick off a process to put limits on further data center development.
SEE ALSO: Loudoun’s Data Center Process Setting Standards, Locations To Begin
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