Stafford Board of Supervisors Debates Meaning of "Related Existing and Future Applications and Development Plans"
At Tuesday’s meeting, Planning Commission and Board members expressed concerns about language grandfathering data center projects; members also debated recognizing Monica Gary.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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When the Stafford Board of Supervisors voted on October 21, 2025, to amend its zoning and development regulations with new guidelines for data centers, it was left unclear whether five existing data center projects approved on or before that date would be grandfathered.
Tuesday night’s meeting sought to resolve that with language permitting these projects to operate under the guidelines in place when they were approved.
The language proposed by the Planning Commission, however, sparked a discussion about whether it opened the door to approved projects potentially expanding their presence to adjoining properties under the older guidelines.
At issue was the word “related.”
The Planning Commission’s proposed language would have allowed data center projects approved on or before October 21, 2025 to “continue with their related existing and future applications and development plans [emphasis added] under the data center zoning ordinance regulations in place when the project was approved”
Planning Commission Chair Steven Apicella said he was concerned that the language “may be unintentionally ambiguous and potentially establish an expectation that the five affected applicants can change or expand their project under the old rules….”
The five projects that would be affected by the changed language are:
Stafford Technology Campus
Potomac Church Tech Center
Centerport Gateway
Vantage
Crane’s Corner
Planning Commission member Kristen Barnes (Rock Hill) expanded on Apicella’s statement:
“My concern is that … it may actually encourage a proffer amendment” that would lead to a ‘domino’ effect expanding projects under the old guidelines. Thus, she continued, a grandfathered data center project might purchase adjacent parcels and “subsume that all into a big bad data center project.”
Planning and Zoning Department head Michael Zuraf explained that the amended version grandfathers projects under the “zoning ordinance regulations,” but not the “comp plan guidelines.”
So, he continued, “if they’re coming in for a proffer amendment, they have to be evaluated against the comp plan guidelines.”
The Planning Commission voted to change the language in the document, removing the term “related,” and include additional verbiage to alleviate any ambiguity. Both the Planning Commission and then the Board of Supervisors approved wording that data center projects approved on or before October 21, 2025:
are allowed to continue with their existing and future applications and development plans directly attributable to the approved project. [emphasis added]
Bad Feelings Surface
Early in the meeting, Supervisor Meg Bohmke had Item 5 on the Consent Agenda pulled for discussion.
The item was a proclamation “to recognize Supervisor Monica Gary for her years of outstanding service on the Stafford Board.”
Bohmke said that “given Board actions and Board discussions over the past two years, I cannot support this proclamation.”
Gary was in the middle of a controversy that erupted a year ago over the removal of a citizen representative to the Central Rappahannock Regional Library Board, Mary Becelia.
Becelia, who had served on the CRRL Board since January 2023, was removed for “misconduct” following a closed meeting of the Board of Supervisors on July 10, 2024. Becelia had served in that capacity since January of 2023. Gary made the motion, and Crystal Vanuch seconded. The motion passed unanimously.
The episode was revisited in September 3, 2024, when Gary changed course and asked to reappoint Mary Becelia to the Library Board.
At that meeting, Gary motioned to reappoint Becelia to the Library Board and strike the word “misconduct,” and Pamela Yeung seconded. However, the Board voted 4-2 against the motion.
The Advance first reported the story in November. In December, the Board voted to censure Gary.
Board member Pamela Yeung and Board Chair Deuntay Diggs spoke in favor of the proclamation, which passed 5-2, with Bohmke and Vanuch voting against it.
Neither Bohmke nor Gary will return to the Board in 2026.
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