Piedmont Environmental Council Public Meeting Part II, To Review or Not to Review, that IS the Question

CRITICAL UPDATE - Albemarle County staff is going to recommend to the Board of Supervisors (BOS) to "pause" the data center ordinance proposal and keep it as is until at least end end of the year. This doesn't mean that the BOS has to accept this recommendation but historically it is given great weight in their decision making. Please continue to express your thoughts with the current BOS and attend meetings. Several crucial changes will be taking place this January: 1) two new BOS members begin their term 2) a new state Governor. 

Continuing on... Part II of a summary provided by Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) at their recent public meeting at The Center in Charlottesville to discuss Virginia data centers. PEC operates in central Virginia supporting the following communities; Albemarle / Cville, Clarke, Culpeper, Fauquier, Greene, Loudoun, Madison, Orange, and Rappahannock. Their mission is to protect and restore the lands and waters of the Virginia Piedmont, while building stronger, more sustainable communities. Some of the jurisdictions they support are the fastest growing in the nation where data center expansion is becoming a central issue. 

To Review or Not to Review, that IS the Question! Below is a summary of the PEC presentation given by Land Use and Policy staff members Julie Bolthouse and Rob McGinnis with some "eye-popping" announcements of future planned land developments for Albemarle County.

How did Virginia become the data center capital of the world? The main buildout is in Northern Virginia (NOVA) with 250 data centers utilizing 30 million square feet, with an additional 6 million under construction. The current administration has publicly announced the US-China AI race by removing regulations and encouraging buildouts. NOVA is near to our federal government and defense with extensive infrastructure available but our state also provides many incentives and cheap energy pricing exclusively for data centers. 

Currently the biggest corporations of the world are not paying for infrastructure buildout to service their data centers, WE ARE. On your electric bill there is a transmission fee that pays for this infrastructure (which can easily increase with each planned data center). Data Centers are a quarter of the Dominion Energy client base and are given incentives to build in Virginia through better utility rates and the largest sales tax exemption in the state, not to mention no comprehensive oversight.

There is no comprehensive law or plans at the state level managing our data centers which are beginning to rapidly trickle down from NOVA to the rest of the state. Until state level laws are instituted to review data center projects, the only point in the process that a locality has to accept or decline a data center project is by requiring a Special Use Permit that requires it be reviewed by the public, Planning Commission, and BOS. 

In 2023, there was no mention of data centers in the Albemarle County code but after the PEC questioned this omission, a stop gap measure was soon approved that required a Special Use Permit for data centers over 40,000 square feet, the BOS is considering to allow "by right" up to 500,000 square feet. That would rubber stamp a data center the size of the 5th Street Station retail complex that houses Wegmans and other retail businesses and a data center that size could consume 50 - 100 megawatts of power, the equivalent of 10,000 - 20,000 homes.  

Currently the county has small accessory data centers (an equipment room inside a hospital or at UVA, or inside a business). The county is reviewing their existing ordinance to add performance standards and size overlay Tiers for "by right" builds at 150,000 and 500,000 square feet. 

PEC explains that a data center above 200,000 square feet would be classified as hyperscale and is worrisome due to the need for more resources to operate (read Part I of my summary, What does a Data Center Need to Operate). 

Louisa, the county next door to Albemarle has approved two hyperscale data center projects that are millions of square feet each. When a third was proposed the community spoke our loudly about another data center and soon their ordinance was changed. Louisa and Loudon Counties, after rubber stamping data center projects, have both put on the brakes by changing their hyperscale sized data center ordinance from "by right" to Special Use Permit. 

One might fear that Albemarle is falling behind but two recent mega scale economic development projects are in the works that would sandwich the City of Charlottesville in the middle. 

Rivanna Futures is a state supported and funded project near the existing NGIC Defense campus on 29N. This 8 mile area (from Greene to Albemarle) could realize a level of potential similar to Silicon Valley (data centers could be built here). Included in this area is a state effort to establish a Defense Corridor to run from Fauquier County to Charlottesville. This conglomerate of projects was described as beyond aspirational by PEC staff. 

There is also a plan to create Virginia's Research Triangle Park connecting the biotech industry from VT in Blacksburg to UVA in Charlottesville. AstraZeneca has announced it is opening a facility in Charlottesville and El Lilly nearby in Goochland.

It's obvious that citizens below the NOVA line do not want intense buildouts to start popping up in their communities and it's especially rotten if there is no transparency. The only entities that are privy to actual electric and water usage numbers are the data center, the State Corporate Commission (SCC) and Dominion Energy, while decision makers and the public at the local level are all left to ponder.

The next meeting concerning data centers in Albemarle County is the Planning Commission, October 14, 6pm.

~Rebecca