Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Loudoun County advances changes to data center regulations

Loudoun County has 117 in the pipeline, but its is considering substantial changes to how the county regulates the booming industry due to growing concerns from residents.

A board vote this week moved the issue forward, with a second vote expected in March to with expectations for pending data centers.

Citing a September 2024 report from Kimley-Horn, Vice Chair Michael Turner said there are 199 data centers on the ground in and 117 in the pipeline. Of these, 84 have site plans submitted.

But Turner noted that county officials and citizens have become concerned about the abundance of data centers popping up, noticing they were starting to be built in “inappropriate places,” i.e., right next to residential neighborhoods. This rapid growth prompted county officials to assess “where data centers are, where they could be, and where we don’t want them.”

According to a presentation from County Administrator Tim Hemstreet, the data center industry now generates 38% of all the county’s general fund revenues. But despite the financial upsides, opponents often complain about the data centers straining the state’s electric grid, the centers generating too much noise and the buildings being eyesores.

Additional oversight

On Wednesday night, the board voted 6-2 to advance changes to the county’s comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance. The comprehensive plan amendment makes data centers a “conditional use” in places where they are currently a core or complementary use. This change requires all future data centers to meet certain conditions to be built.

The zoning ordinance amendment designates data centers as a “special exception” use in county areas where they are currently permitted by-right. Turner explained that by-right applications could be approved administratively, whereas “special exception” requires applicants to go through a public hearing process and get approval for data centers from the board. The board plans to take a final vote on these proposed amendments during its March 18 meeting.

The board’s vote was preceded by an 80-minute public hearing, where several mayors and residents urged the supervisors to approve the amendments, saying they allowed for data centers to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and ensured the supervisors could mitigate the impacts of the centers. Many opposed adding provisions to grandfather in potential data centers with pending applications.

“If these new regulations are so necessary to prevent future harm, then we should apply them universally today, without loophole grandfathering provisions,” said Middleburg Mayor Trowbridge “Bridge” Littleton.

Members of the business community and other supporters argued that data centers support the local and provide high-paying . Several advocated for a grandfathering clause to be added to accommodate existing investments. According to Planning Director Daniel Galindo, there are 36 active by-right applications as of Dec. 1, 2024.

Ultimately, most of the supervisors decided to advance the matter to the March 18 meeting, with supervisors Caleb Kershner and Kristen C. Umstattd being the dissenting votes. Supervisor Matthew Letourneau was absent. Umstattd worried that the new regulations could harm Loudoun’s reputation as a place where people can do business.

“I have been increasingly uncomfortable with the fact that we are singling out one industry and targeting that industry to put limits on in a way that we don’t do with any other industry, or even with residential development,” she said.

Supervisor Koran T. Saines accused some of his colleagues of “fear-mongering” with the insinuation that data centers might avoid the county over the proposed zoning changes. Supervisor Laura TeKrony said by-right developments don’t give oversight and the voice the public asks for.

“A special exception ensures transparency and provides an opportunity for the community to voice support or concerns,” TeKrony said.

Before the March 18 meeting, county staff will present the supervisors with various options that would grandfather data centers with pending applications. Galindo said if the board decides to pass a resolution grandfathering some data centers, the vote on that resolution would also occur on March 18.

Turner told Virginia Business that the county’s changes to data center regulations will occur in two phases, with the first phase concluding with the vote that will take place in March.

“Phase two is we’re going to implement comprehensive performance standards on all data centers going forward, things like setbacks, power usage, noise levels, emissions controls and emission standards,” he said.

Energy concerns

A Dec. 9 report from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission acknowledged the challenges in the state being able to provide the necessary infrastructure to keep up with the demands of data centers. The report found that a substantial amount of new power generation and transmission infrastructure will be needed to meet unconstrained energy demand or even half of unconstrained demand. The Virginia last year forwarded all data center-related bills to this year’s session so lawmakers could take JLARC’s study into consideration.

Turner foresees the challenges of the data centers and power resulting in one of three scenarios.

“The first is the utilities will cap the power available to the data centers just to protect the grid,” Turner said. “They won’t call it that, but they will.”

The second option, he said, is that the industry, on its own, will organically develop ways to process data with far less energy.

“And the third thing is the industry will get tired of being held hostage by the limitations of the grid, and they will develop their own on-site power with microgrids, so they have their own on-site power source,” he said.

Terracon

Terracon is pleased to announce the promotion of Chris Caton, PE, PG, PMP, to the position of Senior Principal. With over 26 years of industry experience, Chris is a program manager for federal projects and serves as a senior Geotechnical engineer and reviewer of project deliverables for the Geotechnical service line.

Announce your new employees, promotions, board positions, community notes and leaders in your organization to our influential audience. The information in the Professional Announcements section is provided by the submitter.

Click here to make a Professional Announcement submission and to find out more.

Click here to see more Professional Announcements

Fairfax casino bill appears to be dead, following subcommittee vote

A bill that would have given County the right to hold a casino referendum is likely dead for the 2025 session, after passing a vote last week in the .

Senate Bill 982, introduced by Democratic Sen. Scott Surovell, was passed by for the day — in other words, not passed along for a later vote in a — in a voice vote of the House Appropriations Committee’s Commerce Agriculture and Natural Resources on Wednesday. That’s ordinarily not a death knell for legislation, but in this case could be because that subcommittee is not scheduled to meet again this session.

Surovell’s chief of staff confirmed in an email that “essentially, yes,” the bill is tabled for the year, even though House Appropriations members have the ability to bring back bills for consideration after they have been tabled by a subcommittee.

A similar bill was introduced in 2024 by Sen. Dave Marsden, D-Fairfax, but was killed in the Senate’s finance committee. His bill’s original proposed location was in Reston — a plan backed by developer Comstock Cos., which is developing Reston Station near the Dulles Toll Road. But plans changed to adjust the location near the Spring Hill Metro station in after senators received pushback from community members.

Under current state law, only five cities in Virginia are allowed to host one casino each: Bristol, Danville, Norfolk, Petersburg and Portsmouth. Voters in each city have passed casino referendums on their ballots, and three are now open in Bristol, Danville and Portsmouth, while Norfolk’s resort is under construction.

Surovell presented his bill Wednesday afternoon to the House subcommittee, saying that he was “tired of Maryland eating our lunch,” referring to the MGM National Harbor Casino in Prince George’s County, Maryland. He said that the had not taken a position on the bill, although it did say it would like to gain more revenue to go toward school construction and other costs.

Several speakers spoke for and against the bill, including Sen. Jennifer Boysko, who represents part of Fairfax County and acknowledged it was unusual for a senator to visit a House subcommittee to speak against a fellow senator’s bill. However, she spoke on behalf of her “200,000-plus” constituents, who, she said, “were very clear” about their opposition to a potential casino in Tysons.

Many local homeowners groups and other Fairfax County organizations spoke against a casino in Tysons, although some residents and unions supported Surovell’s bill as it would provide opportunities.

“The voice of the people was finally heard today,” Paula Martino, president of the Tysons Stakeholders Alliance, said in a statement Wednesday. “Thank you to the members of the Senate who voted no and to the House of Delegates for listening to the thousands of Fairfax County residents who expressed their opposition to the Tysons casino legislation. If this bill had passed, it would have not only wreaked havoc on our county and region, but it would have set a bad precedent in circumventing local authority and the will of the local community.”   

Del. Paul Krizek, D-Fairfax, put forward the motion to pass by the bill, explaining that he felt the state needed a better regulatory framework to address more casinos outside of the five allowed under current state law.

Tysons’ Alarm.com buys stake in remote video monitoring company

Alarm.com has acquired a majority stake in , a Louisiana-based cloud platform for services, according to a Tuesday announcement by the home security tech company.

Financial terms of the were not disclosed.

According to , the strengthens its “market opportunity in the emerging professional video monitoring space.”

Moving forward, CHeKT will operate independently, a news release stated. Video solutions offered by Alarm.com and its subsidiary OpenEye will be integrated into CHeKT’s control room software.

“CHeKT is a pioneer and a leader in the RVM space,” Jeff Bedell, president of ventures business and corporate at Alarm.com, said in a statement. “CHeKT’s deep industry experience has allowed them to design a comprehensive product that fits in seamlessly with monitoring station workflows. Their has attracted an impressive roster of partners, and we look forward to building on that momentum with the CHeKT team.”

Strategy, the Tysons tech company formerly known as , sold its security business to investors in 2009. Alarm.com, which had 1,989 employees at the end of 2023, went public in 2015.

PSI lands $156M contract to support VA’s electronic health records push

The U.S. Department of has awarded , which has its principal office in County, a $156 million contract to provide test and evaluation support for the VA Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office (EHRM-IO) program.

The VA announced the award of the Independent Enterprise Testing and Support Services contract Monday on the System for Award Management (SAM) website.  The EHRM-IO is the VA office charged with preparing, deploying and transitioning to a new electronic health record system.

According to a Request For Proposal issued in November, will provide testing and evaluation support for the software, infrastructure, environments and operations of the Independent Verification and Validation test center.

In April 2020, PSI announced had received a five-year contract, with a value of $149 million, to provide services to the Enterprise Testing Service branch of the Veterans Affairs Office of Information and   and the Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization.

Planned Systems International did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company was founded in 1988 and provides IT and management consulting services to government clients.

Va. economic outlook is positive, says Weldon Cooper Center forecast

Virginia’s long-term is positive, according to the ‘s for Public Service’s inaugural released Monday.

Weldon Cooper economists predict Virginia’s gross domestic product in 2025 will increase 2.4%, outpacing national GDP growth. The U.S. GDP’s growth is expected to be 1.9% this year, slower than the 2.5% growth seen in 2024, according to a December 2024 Moody’s Analytics Forecast.

Statewide will moderate, according to the Weldon Cooper forecast, and the consumer price index will rise 2.6%, a 0.1 percentage point decrease from the CPI growth measured in 2023 and 2024. The national CPI rise is also expected to be 2.6%, according to Moody’s forecast.

Virginia’s growth will slow, dipping below the national average, but the state’s rate will stay below the national average, according to the forecast. Weldon Cooper economists expect the state’s employment growth to be 0.71% in 2025, down from the 1.7% growth seen in 2024.

The predicted employment growth represents a net gain of more than 30,000 . The forecast predicts the average Virginia unemployment rate will be 3.4% this year.

The U.S. nonfarm employment rate is expected to increase 0.73% in 2025, and the average unemployment rate is projected to be 4.1% in 2025, according to Moody’s forecast.

The sectors that will contribute the most to job growth will be (about 5,070 new jobs), retail (almost 4,700 new jobs) and professional services (4,400 new jobs), according to the Weldon Cooper forecast. The report predicts that professional and technical services jobs will represent 11% of the state’s workforce by the end of the year.

The industries that face a challenging 2025, though, are information services, manufacturing, and mining and logging. The information services sector will lose about 141 jobs over the next year, according to the forecast. While manufacturing is expected to lose fewer than 100 jobs by the next quarter, the industry will lose a predicted 847 jobs by the end of 2025.

The mining and logging industry might see short-term job increases in early 2025 because of its seasonal cycle, but the forecast predicts will lose 67 jobs this year, a 0.9% annual decrease.

The forecast released Monday is the first of a quarterly series that will track the state’s economic trends from 2024 to 2050. A team of Weldon Cooper economists, including Executive Director Eric Scorsone, João Ferreira, Terry Rephann and Matt Scheffel, developed the forecast in collaboration with Michael L. Lahr, a professor at Rutgers University.

Kaine, Warner want answers from FAA about possible Musk intervention

In the wake of the fatal Washington, D.C., collision between a U.S. Army helicopter and an airplane, U.S. Sens. and , along with other Democratic lawmakers from Maryland and Virginia, want assurance that leaders at the will notify Congress if billionaire directs the agency to take any steps that could impact aviation safety.

In a letter sent Monday to Chris Rocheleau, acting administrator of the FAA, the lawmakers point to Musk’s Feb. 5 post on X that states the , or , which was created by by executive order, “will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.” The Congress members also flag a Feb. 5 post on X by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, announcing that the DOGE team is “going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.”

The letter follows the Jan. 29 midair collision of a Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The aircraft crashed into the Potomac River, and 67 people died in the crash.

“We are extremely concerned that an ad hoc team of individuals lacking any expertise, exposure, certifications, or knowledge of aviation operations being invited, or inserting themselves, to make ‘rapid’ changes to our nation’s air traffic systems,” the lawmakers write. “This is the wrong course of action to take.”

The lawmakers go on to ask Rocheleau whether he will commit to quickly report to Congress  “any actions that the FAA is directed to undertake at the direction of the President, DOGE, or by the Office of the Secretary of Transportation regarding any aspect of aviation safety.”

The letter was signed by Warner and , along with U.S. Reps. Don Beyer, Gerald Connolly, Suhas Subramanyam, who all represent districts in Northern Virginia, and U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks and U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, who represent Maryland, as well as Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents Washington, D.C.

Additionally, the members of Congress state that the FAA “should identify and implement immediate steps to improve safety.” They applaud the FAA for restricting helicopter traffic near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport until a preliminary investigation is released by the about the collision and for its pause of the use of two of the smaller airport runways.

The FAA announced Tuesday that those runways had been reopened. With the runway reopenings, the FAA says increased the hourly arrival rate at DCA to 28 aircraft. The regular maximum hourly arrival rate for DCA is 32 aircraft, according to the agency.

Warner and Kaine had previously warned that the DCA was overburdened.  The two senators spoke out in May 2024 against the Senate passing a provision in the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act that allowed the addition of five incoming and five outgoing flights at DCA.

“The Senate abdicated its responsibility to protect the safety of the 25 million people who fly through DCA every year,” the pair said in a statement then.

Booz Allen fires subcontractor who wrote document about DOGE access to Treasury

McLean-based Fortune 500 management consulting contractor Hamilton has fired a subcontractor who warned the U.S. Treasury Department about the having access to the Treasury’s payment system.

Booz Allen said that sources quoted in recent media reports “mischaracterize a document provided to Treasury officials” and that the company did not conduct a threat assessment or make recommendations regarding .

“Commentary provided in a draft document by a subcontractor contained unsubstantiated personal opinions,” the company said in a statement. “These unauthorized comments do not represent the company’s views and are inconsistent with our standards. Booz Allen has terminated the subcontractor.”

Bloomberg reported on Friday that the subcontractor expressed concern that DOGE, which is led by billionaire , having access to the payments system posed a significant risk to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which manages the federal government’s accounting. An anonymous source told Bloomberg that the draft report featuring the warning was delivered to the Treasury Department in a weekly intelligence bulletin by Booz Allen.

According to Bloomberg, the contractor’s report said: “Continued access to any payments systems, even ‘read-only’ likely poses the single greatest insider threat risk the Bureau of Fiscal Services has ever faced.” The report mirrors concern that has been shared by security experts, Democratic lawmakers, consumer advocates and government officials.

According to The Washington Post, the Treasury’s highest ranking career official, David A. Lebryk, abruptly retired last month after clashing with Musk allies over DOGE team members having access to a sensitive payment system the federal government uses to disburse trillions of dollars annually.

Axios reported Tuesday that security experts fear Musk’s team having such widespread access posed risks of data leaks, violations of federal security protocols and insider risks.

The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Booz Allen has more than 34,000 employees and reported fiscal 2024 earnings of $10.66 billion, its best revenue year since went public in 2010.

Playa Hotels & Resorts to be acquired in $2.6B deal with Hyatt

Resorts owner, operator and developer & has entered into an agreement to be acquired by an indirect subsidiary of Hotels for approximately $2.6 billion, including approximately $900 million in debt, the companies announced Monday.

is a Dutch public limited liability company headquartered in Amsterdam with an administrative office in . The company’s investor relations operations are based in Fairfax, according to contact information in its 2023 annual report.

Chicago-based Hyatt is currently the beneficial owner of 9.4% of Playa’s outstanding shares. The indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Hyatt, Dutch private limited liability company HI Holdings Playa B.V., will acquire all outstanding shares of Playa for $13.50 per share.

The will take Playa private. Playa went public in 2017 through a merger with a special purpose company.

The acquisition is expected to close later this year and is subject to Playa shareholder and regulatory approvals.

Playa owns and/or manages a portfolio of 24 resorts with a total of 8,627 rooms in Mexico, Jamaica and the Dominion Republic, under the Hyatt Zilara, Hyatt Ziva, Hilton All-Inclusive, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, Wyndham Alltra, Seadust, Kimpton, Jewel Resorts and The Luxury Collection brands.

“We are pleased to enter into this agreement with Hyatt and look forward to delivering the many benefits of the transaction to Playa’s shareholders, guests, employees and other stakeholders,” Playa Chairman and CEO Bruce D. Wardinski said in a statement.

Playa Hotels & Resorts revealed the potential for the acquisition in December 2024, when confirmed it had executed an exclusivity agreement with Hyatt Hotels under which Playa agreed to negotiate exclusively with Hyatt regarding potential strategic options, which could include Hyatt acquiring the company.

“The transaction will deliver to Playa shareholders a 40% premium to the company’s unaffected stock price prior to the disclosure of exclusive discussions with Hyatt,” Wardinksi said in a statement.

Playa announced the exclusivity agreement Dec. 23, 2024. At close on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, Playa shares were trading for $9.61.

Hyatt “intends to identify third-party buyers for Playa’s owned properties,” according to a news release, and, following the close of the transaction, anticipates realizing at least $2 billion in proceeds from asset sales by the end of 2027.

The company expects to fund 100% of the acquisition with new debt financing, according to a news release, and to pay down more than 80% of the new debt financing with proceeds from asset sales.

“Hyatt has firmly established itself as a leader in the all-inclusive space, a journey that began in 2013 through an investment in Playa Hotels & Resorts that launched the Hyatt Ziva and Hyatt Zilara brands,” Hyatt President and CEO Mark Hoplamazian said in a statement. “We have respected and benefitted from Playa’s operating expertise and outstanding guest experience delivery for years through their ownership and management of eight of our Hyatt Ziva and Hyatt Zilara hotels.”

Trump’s steel, aluminum tariffs could impact Va. economy

President Donald Trump imposed 25% on and imports Monday. Now, the world waits to see what impact they will have.

“If you look at the behavior of investors, investors are signaling again that they don’t believe these tariffs will be long-lived,” said Bob McNab, chair of Old Dominion University’s Department of Economics and director of the Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy. “If you’re looking at statements from the administration and president, they are suggesting that the tariffs may be in place for a while.”

After all, McNab noted, U.S. stocks rose Monday.

So far, Trump’s threatened tariffs on Mexico and Canada have led to deals to delay enforcement, preventing retaliatory tariffs by those countries, so investors are not sure whether the steel and aluminum tariffs are for real or a bargaining chip. Trump told reporters about the tariff announcement as he flew to Louisiana for the Super Bowl on Sunday.

But depending on how long the tariffs are enforced, McNab said, Virginia consumers and business owners could take a hit to their pocketbooks.

“If we see the tariffs come into play and remain in force for an extended period of time, then prices of imported steel and aluminum obviously are going to rise, but the price of domestically produced steel and aluminum will rise as well, and those costs will be passed along to American businesses and consumers,” he said.

McNab described a person standing in an empty pool and holding a hose to fill with water.

“It might start off barely nipping at your toes, and at some point it’s at your knees, and at some point it’s at your nose, and then it’s above your head,” he said. “Sort of like that, the effects will accumulate over time and grow larger over time as the costs of goods increase, and then we start to see firms and consumers make decisions about consumption due to the higher price of goods.”

The tariffs will have a bigger impact on states where steel and aluminum production is concentrated than it will on the commonwealth, McNab believes.

“I haven’t seen anything that suggests that we’re wildly different from any other state,” he said of Virginia.

In 2018, Trump imposed tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum, although some countries — including Australia, Canada and Mexico — got breaks on the duties.

The Biden administration later rolled back some trade restrictions on steel and aluminum tariffs with the European Union, the United Kingdom and Japan.

Fred Treyz, CEO and chief economist of REMI, a Massachusetts based policy modeling firm, said northern states with economies that rely heavily on automotive manufacturing stand to take larger hits, because those companies work hand in hand with Canada.

“That’s disruptive to the auto industry, even to the U.S. side of the auto industry because they’re working together,” he said.

For Virginia’s aluminum manufacturers, he said, tariffs could actually help business by providing protection from competition outside the United States, Treyz said. “So it does tend to give the domestic manufacturer more pricing power, so they can increase their prices and increase their output if they’re not facing the international competition.”

Neither Crown Holdings, which has a beverage can manufacturing facility facility in Henry County, nor Belvac, which produces for the two-piece can industry at a Lynchburg facility, immediately returned a request for comment.

Chris Gregory, executive vice president at SteelFab, a with a fabrication plant in Emporia, sent an email Monday night, explaining that the company was waiting to learn more details about the tariffs. “But we are bracing ourselves for pricing increases across the board,” he wrote. 

Ben Phelps, vice president of Frederick County’s Winchester Metals, explained in an email that tariffs would impact the steel distribution, processing and fabrication facility, but added that it won’t necessarily be in a negative way.

“We generally pass on any raw material increases that we incur to our customers,” he wrote. “Our business is more transactional as opposed to contractual, so we’re not locked into price points.”

Impact on

It’s well established that Virginia is popular with data center developers because of its location near Washington, D.C., and internet exchange points, as well as its business friendly environment.

Data center developers are also fans of steel, which they often use for the exteriors of buildings and for use in things like enclosure racks and HVAC systems.

David Smith, a senior vice president with Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, doesn’t think the tariffs on steel imports will cause data center developers to hit pause on their plans, however.

“I wouldn’t expect the tariffs to have a long-term negative impact on data center development at all,” said Smith, who specializes in land sales in the Richmond area and often works with data center developers.

The cost of real estate and the cost to put up data center buildings “relative to what the data centers generate in income is very small,” he said.

The increased cost of materials due to tariffs won’t be enough to erase that profitability, according to Smith. For developers who are just beginning their journey to get data centers built, he said, tariffs are likely be a nonfactor. It takes developers an average of four to seven years to get the necessary approvals from localities and utilities after purchasing land to build data centers, according to Smith.

“It would be my expectation that the tariff situation on steel and aluminum by that time will be long ironed out and resolved,” he said.

Last week, Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico as retaliation for illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking. However, he later agreed to pause those discussions for 30 days after leaders in both countries issued plans to increase border security. Trump implemented a 10% tariff on China last week and Chinese tariffs of 10% to 15% on some U.S. products were set to take effect Monday.