King George Business Files Lawsuit Challenging Board of Supervisor's Approval of Green Energy Ventures Data Center Project
Horti-Group USA filed the suit last week in King George Circuit Court.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
Email Adele
A King George County-based greenhouse and farm has filed a lawsuit alleging that the Board of Supervisors’ February 17 approval of the Green Energy Ventures data center project constituted an “arbitrary and capricious decision,” violated the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, failed to comply with its own Comprehensive Plan, and will constitute a nuisance to the farm’s activities.
Horti-Group USA, LLC, filed the suit last week in King George Circuit Court. It names the Board of Supervisors, represented by County Attorney Richard Stuart, as the main defendant, with Mount View Family Limited Partnership and Plentiful Farm Family Limited Partnership as interested parties/defendants.
Green Energy Ventures, LLC, is also named as an interested party.
The two family partnerships own 356 acres of land along State Route 3, Bloomsburg Road, and Birchwood Run. The land, which is zoned agricultural, is the subject of a rezoning request and special exception permit application submitted by Green Energy Ventures (GEV), which proposes to build a 6.5 million square foot data center complex.
The special exception is to build data center buildings up to 90 feet tall, in excess of the 50 feet allowed by zoning.
The proposed data center site is “immediately adjacent” to Horti-Group’s land, which consists of 156.6 acres of farmland, including 55 acres of greenhouses, that produce “high value plants, flowers, and other plant material for landscaping and home use,” according to the lawsuit.
Among its products are 500,000 poinsettias and two million chrysanthemum plants each year, both of which require specific amounts of uninterrupted darkness in order to develop, and other plants such as strawberries and peonies that require pollination by bees, which navigate by natural sunlight.
The data center site contains wetlands, a Federal Emergency Management Agency floodplain, and a resource protection area.
In July of 2025, the King George Planning Commission voted 6-to-2 against recommending approval of GEV’s application, finding that the height limit changes were not in accordance with the county’s Comprehensive Plan and that the proposed data center use “will be detrimental to the use or development of adjacent properties and the general neighborhood and will impair the value of buildings or property in the area.”
On February 17, the Board of Supervisors voted 3-to-2 to approve the rezoning and special exception request, “with no amendments or adjustments to bring the [applications] into compliance with the Comprehensive Plan or other law,” the lawsuit states.
Supervisors stated that data centers are needed to avoid tax increases to pay for schools, public safety, and infrastructure, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states that the data center complex will cause light pollution and generator exhaust which will be detrimental to Horti-Group’s products and “imperil” its business and the jobs of its workers.
It also states that the defendants do not have easements or permission to construct an entrance onto the plaintiff’s farmland, as is proposed in the land use application.
The suit asks the court to declare that the Board’s approval of the application is “null and void” and issue “preliminary and permanent” injunctions on all permits, site work, and construction.
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