Wythe’s lack of zoning eases way for data center plan

Wythe County is one of just a handful of Virginia’s 95 counties without a countywide zoning system.
That’s why the Wythe Board of Supervisors didn’t have to hold a public hearing to approve Purcellville-based Solis Arx’s plan to build an artificial intelligence data center campus expected to cost more than $1 billion at Progress Park, a 1,200-acre industrial site located at the intersection of Interstates 81
and 77.

“We don’t have zoning in this county, so until that’s addressed, if you don’t live in the town of Wytheville or the town of Rural Retreat, one of these could pop up as your neighbor,” Brian Vaught, the board’s chairman at the time, said at a December 2025 county meeting.

In an email, Solis Arx founder and CEO Robert Noll described the proposed data center campus as the “execution of the long-standing county vision for the park” and said the site was chosen because of its proximity to major power lines and fiber routes.

The project’s “scale, power profile, final building layouts and square footage are still being optimized,” according to Noll, but once operational, the data center campus could generate more than $10 million in annual tax revenue. That’s a financial windfall for a county that now collects about $21 million annually in real estate and personal property taxes.

The data center has not been met with universally open arms, however.

A grassroots group called Preserve Wythe County formed late last year in opposition and now has about 600 members.

Its efforts are unlikely to deter the project, which Wythe Deputy County Administrator Matt Hankins calls “as close to done as it can be without shovels in the ground.”

The group could influence the board’s willingness to embrace zoning, however.

Preserve Wythe County Chair Andy Kegley says zoning is “a necessary evil” if citizens are to have any say in the county’s development.

Wythe County has attempted to institute zoning several times before without success. “Zoning has always been controversial,” Hankins says.

Concerns over data centers and growth could propel the board to take action, however.

“I can never guess what four of seven people at the front of the room are going to do,” Hankins says.