FROM THE EDITOR: This Is No Way to Run Economic Development

Whether one agrees or disagrees with data centers, the arbitrary way the Stafford Board of Supervisors made critical decisions that could profoundly affect the county's finances deserves scrutiny.

By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Photo by Alexandre Viard on Unsplash

Tuesday night’s Stafford Board of Supervisors’ public meeting — which included a joint meeting with the Planning Commission — dragged on for more than nine hours, while citizens and Board members kicked around data center setback numbers and talked about “protecting Stafford.”

At the end of the evening that stretched into early Wednesday morning, the Board had established data center setbacks at 750 feet. It represented no minor adjustment, but rather a 650-foot extension over the 100-foot setback that was agreed upon in 2023 — the equivalent of two football fields sans the end zones. That’s the largest such setback in the commonwealth.

It was far from the only significant change Tuesday night, but that change more than any other exemplified how arbitrary the Board’s process for making economic development decisions has become.

Consider how the Board arrived at 750 feet.

From the original 100-foot setback, a 1,320-foot setback was advertised for the meeting. Why 1,320? That's not clear. Over the course of the evening, figures ranging from 500 feet to 2 miles were tossed around the dais.

The 750-foot setback was ultimately a political “compromise.” What was lacking was any real substantive defense for that setback, or for that matter any of the other numbers Board members threw out.

Whether Stafford residents support or reject data centers, here’s what few would dispute — for a county facing significant financial challenges, playing football with setback numbers is no way to handle economic development, especially when those arbitrary decisions can have impacts that affect the county for the next four or five decades.

A Welcome, Open-for-Business County?

During the joint meeting with the Planning Commission, member Kristen Barnes noted that since 2023, when the first regulations governing data centers were established — with setbacks then set at 100 feet — five data centers have been approved (two were done by right).

She celebrated the county’s “batting 1,000” on data center approval as evidence that Stafford is “Welcome, open for business.”

But Tuesday night’s display demonstrated not a welcoming environment, but rather a tepid invitation for companies to come and spend money — lots of money — as the Board and Planning Commission shift the rules again and again for building.

Tuesday marked the third time since 2023 that the county has revised or attempted to revise ordinances affecting data centers.

Such revisions do not come without costs. And these costs are mostly born by companies hoping to invest in the county.

For a data center company to reach the point that it’s ready to bring a rezoning request before Stafford’s — or any locality’s — Planning Commission, companies invest “at least 12-18 months of strict review,” said land use attorney Charlie Payne.

The cost? “All in, including transactional costs (e.g. nonrefundable deposits with property owners), civil, environmental and traffic engineering, cultural resources analysis, property due diligence, legal fees, power supply analysis, and county application fees: $500,000-1.5 million,” not counting lost opportunity costs.

Constant revisions to ordinances such as Stafford has engaged in since 2023 slows this process for developers, removing clear benchmarks to shoot for, while adding costs.

On Tuesday night, however, Stafford’s decision-making went beyond arbitrary to the absurd.

Prior to the joint Planning Commission - Board of Supervisors meeting, the Board voted to approve a new data center project — Cranes Corner.

The project passed with setbacks ranging from (drumroll, please) 110 to 118 feet.

Just “hours later,” Payne noted “the County passed an amended comprehensive plan and zoning text amendment that increases setbacks for primary buildings to 750 feet! There are homes closer to the Stafford Regional Airport. There is a County water tower off of Old Potomac Church Road 70 feet from residential property owners.”

Such actions, he said, don’t feel “welcoming.” He continued: “I represent 10 applicants with rezoning applications that far exceed the setbacks and buffering of the said Cranes Corner project.”

And it’s not just the developers who are affected.

Should developers abandon plans for more favorable locations, the loss in tax revenues to the county could be in the tens of millions of dollars. More important, Payne said that it’s likely the “County’s bond rating agencies will take a very close look at the text amendment the County just passed.”

The Advance reached out to Stafford’s Community Engagement office for comment as to whether the new setbacks could affect the county’s bond rating.

In an emailed response, Shannon Eubanks wrote: “The three bond agencies determine any ratings given to the County. They use specific criteria to give ratings. At the Board’s September 23, 2025, Work Session on data centers, a presentation noted that Moody’s and S&P considered the impact of future data center revenue.”

In other words, should anticipated data center projects and their associated revenues not materialize, the county’s bond rating would likely be in jeopardy.

Pleading Ignorance

Lending to the feeling that Tuesday night’s actions were arbitrary was this comment by Board member Meg Bohmke, who said that in 2023 when the roughly 100-foot setbacks were installed the Board hadn’t been “properly informed” about “unintended consequences.”

Bohmke, however, has for years been involved in advocating for data center investment, according to Payne. She was on the Board when key decisions were made, like setting the personal property tax rate for computer equipment and reviewing the proposed data center development standards.

“I am confused what consequences she is referring to,” Payne wrote. “How would you remotely understand the impacts if you do not even have a data center in operation?” (Though five data centers have been approved, none is currently “under roof.”)

Further, Payne noted, the data center industry has been responsive to the county’s requests in the past, “including the most restrictive noise standard in the County (likely the state for data centers) at 55 dBA, with a further reduction of 3 dBA for any prominent discrete tone component (e.g. alleged humming sound).”

At that level, Payne added, “What would it matter what the setback distance is if the data center user could meet the noise ordinance standard and screen its use from adjoining property owners (which … does not include dense residential developments)?”

Bohmke will leave the Board in January, but her apparent flip-flopping could add to concerns developers may have about trusting that this Board will stick to the promises it makes when it sets guidelines and standards.

When Opportunity Knocks

Stafford County is confronting a number of significant financial challenges.

Tinesha Allen noted Tuesday night that the county “had to go into our funds because we couldn’t fund some of our budget.”

The real estate tax break afforded to disabled veterans has hit Stafford County particularly hard. At the March Board meeting, Bill Ashton noted that “Ten percent of all disabled veterans in the state live in Stafford. The population rose from 157 disabled veterans in 2011, when the law went into effect, to 4,348 last year, and the amount of tax relief rose from $433,000 to $22 million during those years.”

That revenue loss, he said, is a key driver of the 2026 budget.

Board Chair Deuntay Diggs on Tuesday also noted that the county has raised taxes for ten consecutive years, and still the county can’t deal with many problems it’s facing, like its aging school facilities.

These problems are only going to compound in coming years. And as Diggs noted, economic development doesn’t happen overnight.

Payne told the Advance that Stafford “has a unique opportunity that many communities in this country would quickly and enthusiastically embrace. Why the County continues to create unnecessary obstacles for this technology investment is concerning for my clients, and it should be for County taxpayers as well.”

Perhaps the question citizens should be asking is why a county that has long worked to bring in data centers, recognizing their potential to strengthen the county’s finances and shore up its infrastructure, is now arbitrarily changing standards.

This is no way to do economic development. Whether it’s data centers, coffee shops, or movie theaters.

It is a way to ensure that taxes are going to rise again, and again, and again.

Stafford’s residents, and those who want to invest in their county, deserve far better than they got Tuesday night.

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