Frederick supervisors to consider countywide ban of data centers

The Frederick County Board of Supervisors is considering a countywide ban on data centers after months of community pushback over the industry.

Last week, the board unanimously voted to direct staff to prepare a resolution authorizing a public hearing for an ordinance amendment that would remove data centers as an allowed use in all of the county’s zoning districts.

For much of the past year, county residents have repeatedly raised alarms about the industry at various public meetings, citing concerns that it negatively impacts water and energy resources, generates noise, hurts property values and poses health risks. During a May 7 public forum at James Wood High School, attended by hundreds of residents, applause erupted when a resident said data centers shouldn’t be built near homes.

“I think we can all agree that the data center topic has sucked all the air out of the room recently, and it is my opinion it has been distracting us from other efforts and issues that need our focus,” Chairman John Jewell said during the board’s July 8 meeting, right before introducing the resolution to ban data centers from the county.

However, Jewell clarified that the board should hear out existing data center applications and that the proposed ban would not affect them. He said the applications already underway need to be fairly reviewed by the board, but noted he had “severe concerns about both of them.”

The county currently has applications for Winchester Gateway, a proposed 72-acre campus near Virginia Route 37, and Virginia Technology Park, which would sit on 220 acres near Interstate 81’s Exit 323. The Planning Commission unanimously recommended denying the latter’s rezoning application in June, following severe community pushback.

Planning Director Wyatt Pearson said Virginia Technology Park applicant Equus Capital Partners has since requested an indefinite postponement of their board public hearing to allow them to work on their application. Applicant Winchester Gateway LLC attended a planning commission work session in June and was told to revise the application and bring it back for a public hearing. Concerns raised by the commission included inadequate electrical infrastructure, possible new high-voltage transmission lines, building heights exceeding proposed limits and ineffective screening.

According to Pearson, the applicant for Winchester Gateway will need to be back by the Sept. 2 Planning Commission meeting unless a waiver is allowed.

“That being said,” Jewell said, “if anyone is considering filing a new application to develop a data center in our county, this is your fair warning that we are in the middle of a comprehensive plan update. … The community has made it abundantly clear that they are worried about these things, and I think we need to wait and see how some of this pans out.”

Board member Gary Oates asked when the public hearing would take place on the ordinance forbidding data centers, worrying that if it occurs before the county hears the two data center applications underway, it could appear the county was slanted against the projects from the beginning and open the county up to a lawsuit if they are denied.

County Attorney Andrew Fox disputed that it would open the county to litigation.

“The fact that you’re directing staff to start the process, which will itself involve public hearings at the planning commission level and at the Board of Supervisors, that has no particular bearing on the applications that are before either of those bodies at this point,” Fox said.

After the board directed staff to draft the ordinance, the audience of county residents cheered.

During the citizen comment portion of the meeting, Stonewall District resident Vicki Michaels thanked the board for “listening to your constituents.”

“I just wanted to thank you,” Gainesboro resident Leslie Spencer told the board. “Don’t know if you could see it back there, but I was ugly crying [when] it was announced, your data center ordinance, and I appreciate it so much. And I love this community so much, and this shows so much dedication and care and stewardship.”

According to Pearson, the draft ordinance will likely go before the county’s planning commission in September. Regarding the two pending data center applications, Pearson said that if they are approved before the ordinance is adopted, the ordinance could include a grandfather clause to ensure they’re not affected. If their applications take longer, the county will have to find a different mechanism to give them time to be considered.

Frederick has had one data center, the 43,400-square-foot Middletown Data Center, for over a decade. Pearson said that the data center would be grandfathered in if the county adopted the proposed ordinance.