Henrico supervisors defer vote on potential data center restrictions, propose tougher guidelines

The Henrico Board of Supervisors voted unanimously May 15 to delay until June 10 votes on proposed amendments to the county’s zoning ordinance and comprehensive plan that would restrict hyperscale data center development to the White Oak Technology park region in Sandston, after hearing concerns from citizens during a public hearing.

Supervisors also directed planning staffers to strengthen the proposed amendments so that they would require a provisional use permit be approved for any data center proposal in the county – even those planned within the White Oak Technology Park area, where the originally proposed amendments would have allowed them to be located by right, without a permit.

The vote came during a joint public hearing with the Henrico Planning Commission in the Highland Springs High School auditorium, after nearly three hours of discussion and comments from about 20 speakers – and after the planning commission had voted to recommend approval of both proposed revisions.

Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson, whose district contains the White Oak Technology Park, also directed planning staffers to remove from the proposed amendments plans to enact a special overlay district for the park, which would have permitted future data center development there by right.

During the public hearing, officials heard from several residents of the Varina District who shared concerns about both what they termed the rushed introduction of the data center proposals (which were made public only about two weeks ago) and a lack of support provided to residents after the development of data centers.

Among those who voiced concerns was Stuart Goodwin, who said the initiative to implement a new overlay district was a good start but that more must be done to stop pollution on existing residential and agricultural properties. Goodwin called for further amendments to be made, saying that language can be easily misinterpreted.

“From prior experience, we have learned that companies will take advantage of this lax requirement and allow the newly planted vegetation to die, causing the county to incur the cost of replacement,” Goodwin said.

By introducing and then considering a vote on the proposals so quickly, supervisors said they were attempting to act with urgency to limit data center development in a way that was consistent with what many residents have asked for.

“I don't know if ironic is the right word, but the thing is, the timeline is in part because of immediate action, is what we kept hearing from our folks,” Three Chopt District Supervisor Misty Roundtree said.

Among the other speakers who addressed the board and commission was Glenn Miller, the Vice President of Vienna Finance Inc. and manager of Atlantic Crossing LLC, which owns a 175-acre tract of land adjacent to I-64 across from a 622-acre site in the White Oak Technology Park footprint that was approved last year for likely data center development.

He said that requiring provisional use permits for data centers everywhere in the county could jeopardize the investment more than $300,000 his companies had already made in the site.

“[The Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission] has to also balance its responsibility to its constituents with respect for the law of the Commonwealth of Virginia, as relating to land use,” Miller said.

Miller's sentiments were shared by various members of Centra Logistics, who would face a similar predicament. David Wagner, managing partner at Centra, talked about the impacts this can have on smaller businesses.

“We were always given assurances that our property could move forward,” Wagner said. “As soon as the ordinance goes through, it's not merely the cost we spent on the project; the hardest part will be the difficult resource decisions I'm forced to make.”

During a presentation at the beginning of Thursday’s hearing, Henrico County planner Ben Sehl said the proposals should be implemented, since they “will continue to allow data center development in a suitable area, while also limiting potential impacts from such development elsewhere in the county.”

But Fairfield District Supervisor Roscoe Cooper, III, asked Henrico Planning Director Joe Emerson whether restricting large data centers to the White Oak Technology Park region was fair to nearby residents.

“Are we intentionally concentrating data centers in low-income or historically marginalized communities, creating sacrifice zones?” Roscoe Cooper, supervisor for Fairfield District said.

Emerson told him that there wasn’t an intentional effort to do so.

“The pattern has followed a historic zoning pattern that we all inherited,” Emerson said.

Varina District resident Gray Montrose spoke about health, safety, and welfare concerns related to the development of data centers.

“You members made this industrial concentration, and now you propose to contain the cancer you made to the detriment of the people of this community, while sharing the benefits that tax revenue across all five districts – concentrating the harms and sharing the benefits,” Montrose said.

Other residents cited concerns about the potential for increased truck traffic, noise pollution, water wastage and potential health risks from PFAS contamination.

Nelson said that land within the White Oak Technology Park is mostly “spoken for” already, meaning that few additional data centers that haven’t already been approved could locate there anyway.