Stafford Supervisors Vote Down Amendment Making Data Center Use Conditional
Data center use will remain by-right in heavy industrial zoning areas.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Data centers will remain a by-right use in Stafford County’s heavy industrial, or M2, zoning districts.
The Board of Supervisors voted narrowly on Tuesday evening to deny a proposed amendment to the county’s zoning ordinance that would have made data center use conditional on receiving a special use permit.
A portion of Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting was given over to a joint public hearing with the Planning Commission on the proposed amendment. Following the public hearing, the Planning Commission voted 4-to-2, with one member absent, to recommend adoption of the amendment.
Staff also recommended adoption, but a majority of the supervisors felt that either the amendment wasn’t necessary or that it would have a chilling effect on data center development in the county.
“We just had a difficult, hour-long conversation about the tax rate,” said Vice Chair and Griffis-Widewater representative Tinesha Allen. “Just as some [supervisors] say they have a mandate not to raise taxes, I have a mandate to create economic development. I’m not going to create a burden. This is a group of organizations that are going to help us rebuild our utility infrastructure and save us $60-100 million by them building it.”
Allen was joined by Chair and George Washington representative Deuntay Diggs, Aquia representative Monica Gary, and Hartwood representative Darrell English in opposing the amendment.
Falmouth representative Meg Bohmke, Rock Hill representative Crystal Vanuch, and Garrisonville representative Pamela Yeung wanted to see the amendment pass.
“I feel the conditional use permit’s primary purpose, as the Planning Commission members eloquently stated, is to give additional protection to our constituents who live around the data centers, and I feel that’s our responsiblity,” Bohmke said.
The Planning Commission and supervisors approved amendments specifically defining data centers as a by-right use in M2 zoning districts in 2023, Mike Zuraf, planning and zoning director, explained Tuesday.
Stafford’s comprehensive plan identifies data centers as a valuable component of the county’s economic development strategy, Zuraf said, but recently proposed and approved projects highlight that they also come with high infrastructure needs and potential traffic impacts.
Through the conditional use permit process, he said, the county would be able to impose conditions that are limited to the specific use involved with each project.
There is undeveloped M2-zoned land scattered around the county, according to a map prepared for Tuesday’s meeting. The Stafford Technology Campus project has already been approved for one of these parcels and county review of the site and grading plan is underway.
The other 11 data center projects that have been submitted to the county are requesting rezonings, so they would have to come before the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors anyway as part of that process, Zuraf said.
Zuraf said there are “a lot of smaller M2-zoned properties” in Heritage Commerce Park and “maybe two or three larger M2 properties along Celebrate Virginia Parkway,” which are near apartments in that area.
But Charlie Payne, a land-use attorney who often represents data center developers, said during the public hearing that the remaining M2 properties are not suitable for data center development.
“I assure you if these properties were viable—if they had the magic combination of acreage, access to utilities, electric infrastructure, and fiber—they would have been purchased and site plans submitted,” he said. “They’re not viable.”
Payne was the only speaker on Tuesday opposing the amendment. Other speakers raised concerns about data center noise, water usage, and proximity to residential neighborhoods.
Diggs pointed out that these were concerns about projects that are already in the works.
“This [proposed amendment] doesn’t impact them,” he said. “We need to understand that.”
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