Developer withdraws controversial data center proposal for Darbytown Road site in Varina

Local developer Wagner Urban Logistics has withdrawn its proposal to construct a one-million square-foot data center off Darbytown Road in Varina, according to an Oct. 13 announcement by Varina supervisor Tyrone Nelson.

The developer’s application for a provisional use permit was set to be considered by the Henrico Board of Supervisors Oct. 14. Approval from the board would have allowed the data center project to move forward, but the Henrico Planning Commission had recommended that the board deny the application.

Wagner Urban Logistics did not respond to requests for comment on the reason for the withdrawal by the time of this article’s publication.

The proposal had faced significant backlash from many Varina residents, especially from residents of the New Market Village neighborhood – a housing subdivision right across the street from the proposed 200-acre data center site. About 100 people, many who were New Market Village residents, gathered at an Aug. 6 community meeting held by Wagner Urban Logistics to voice their concerns.

Several residents and other Varina community members opposed to the data center also held an Oct. 11 community meeting encouraging the board of supervisors to deny the case. Henrico School Board member Alicia Atkins (Varina District), who has publicly opposed the proposal, said that the location of the proposed site – just half a mile from George F. Baker Elementary School – was the biggest factor in her opposition.

“To put this particular project near Baker Elementary School is beyond unfathomable to me,” she said. “For me, the project itself is fine. That location is not, and sacrificing the health of our children and our planet, there’s no amount of money that would be able to make me align with it.”

Nelson also had publicly come out in opposition to the proposal. Other supervisors have not spoken publicly on the case.

“I have shared for the past few months, I was not in support,” Nelson said in a social media announcement. “But it was the RESIDENTS of New Market Village, Eagles Nest, Winding Woods and Darbytown Meadows and others along Darbytown Road that solidified my thoughts.”

Residents had brought up several worries about placing a data center so close to a residential neighborhood, including potential impacts on air quality, noise, traffic, and on access to drinking water. 

Many residents also had concerns about how a nearby data center could significantly raise their electricity bills. In September, Dominion Energy announced that homeowners would see electricity costs increase by $8.51 each month starting on Jan. 1, 2026, due in part to the surge in power demand from data centers.

“It’s no way possible that our power bills are not going to go up with that data center, I believe that wholeheartedly,” said Amy Burrell, a New Market Village resident. “There are people [in New Market Village] that are a one-income household. They can’t afford for their electric bills to go up.”

But Dominion has also proposed a new rate class for data centers, said David Wagner, the founder of Wagner Urban Logistics. The change would allow more transparency into what data centers are paying in exchange for their high power usage and could protect homeowners from future cost increases. 

“My stance is that data centers need to pay their share. If the reason why energy prices are going up is because of data centers, then data centers need to foot that bill,” Wagner said. “I feel very strongly that if there are new infrastructure projects, that data centers should pay for it.”

Residents weren't swayed by $1-million commitment

Wagner said that the Darbytown Road site was only chosen because areas in White Oak Technology Park, a 3,000-acre site in Sandston that previously did not require data centers to obtain PUPs, already had been sold to other developers. Wagner also said he struggled to find other vacant sites in the region with industrial zoned land on transmission lines – a necessity for data centers.

Following the Aug. 6 community meeting, Wagner announced that if the data center project was approved, Wagner Urban Logistics would invest $1 million into the local community during the next five to 10 years, particularly into the three schools nearby the proposed site: Baker Elementary, John Rolfe Middle, and Varina High.

“The million dollars is very meaningful to us,” Wagner said. “That’s a big amount to invest.”

But some community members were not swayed by the promised $1 million investment, saying that for a project that was predicted to generate around $25 million for the county each year, Wagner’s offer was just “a drop in the bucket.”

“A million dollars is like a penny to me and everybody else,” said Shantell Lewis, a Varina resident. “We don’t need your money. A million dollars is nothing compared to our health.”

The proposal was the first data center case in Henrico after the board of supervisors added new restrictions in June that required data center projects to obtain PUPs through board approval and a public hearing process before moving forward and eliminated by-right approvals.

Some residents believed that with this being the first case, the board’s vote would have set a precedent for all other data center cases in Henrico in the future. 

“I think some of these developers for data centers are just sitting back waiting to see how this one is going to pan out,” said Burrell. “I think this will set the precedent for any future data centers that may be trying to come in, especially in Varina, that they will know that it’s not going to be as easy for them as they think it’s going to be, that we’re not pushovers.”

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.