Loudoun County weighs reversing data center exemption

Loudoun County officials are considering whether to roll back an exemption that has allowed some pending data center projects to continue under older approval rules.

The issue centers on applications already in progress when the county removed by-right rules for local data center developments. Under the former system, some projects could be approved administratively. Under the new rules, data center applications must go through a public hearing process and require approval from the county’s board of supervisors.

When those rules changed, the county included a grandfather clause. It allowed applications submitted before the removal of by-right approvals to be reviewed under the regulations in place at the time, as long as they were more than 500 feet away from residential units and were still "diligently pursued" during review.

That exemption is now under scrutiny. On Tuesday, the board of supervisors considered a motion from supervisors Juli Briskman and Laura TeKrony to reverse the grandfathering.

TeKrony argued that Loudoun shouldn’t have to "shoulder the burden of all the data centers in the world", and said that residents deserved a voice in what’s built next to their homes.

Other supervisors pushed back. Caleb Kershner argued against the motion, saying that just one percent of the land in the county is used by data centers, while they bring in 50 percent of the county’s revenue.

The board did not take a final step on reversing the exemption. Instead, the meeting ended with supervisors voting to assess how many data center applications qualify for grandfathering and whether reversing the resolution would be legal.

The board will wait for the results of that assessment, which is being conducted by a county attorney, before voting on whether to reverse the resolution.

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