Albemarle County grapples with proposed data center regulation

ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - With the rise of artificial intelligence, data centers are continuing to pop up around Virginia at a rapid pace.

Now, Albemarle County is trying to figure out what it does and does not want when it comes to these warehouses, and has developed a draft ordinance as an initial step in creating the final blueprint.

The County Board of Supervisors directed staff to create the ordinance after an April meeting, which also established a 40,000 square foot cap on data centers in industrial districts.

That meeting was originally met with support from some environmental groups, but after reading the draft ordinance, the reception has changed.

“We thought they took the right approach, now we’re very concerned,” said Rob McGinnis, the Senior Land Use Representative with the Piedmont Environmental Council.

The bulk of McGinnis’ concerns, he says, is with the zoning.

The 40,000 square foot cap still exists, but the draft ordinance presents exceptions in the overlay districts, which have been zoned specifically to allow for development: Emerson/Rivanna Futures, Airport Industrial Area/North Fork Industrial Park, Pantops, and I-64/Route 29.

In these areas, staff have presented two tier options for what size data center can be built: Tier 1 allows for up to 125,000 square feet by right, and Tier 2 allows for up to 500,000 square feet by right. Anything larger will have to apply for a special use permit.

But McGinnis says data centers at this scale should require a special use permit, to ensure that their potential impacts on the community can be considered beforehand.

“When you look at 500,000 square feet, that’s about the size of the entire Fifth Street Station,” McGinnis said. “So, when you add in generators, noise issues, water usage, you really want public engagement, you want public input, and you want supervisors and planning commissioners to weigh in.”

Bill Fritz, the Development Process Manager for Albemarle County, says they have done significant research already, and that the size limits are higher in these overlay districts because of the nature of that land.

“They were in the development areas, they were served by water and sewer, and that they were either zoned industrial or they were in the comprehensive plan for research and development,” Fritz said. “We looked at the surrounding properties... what the character of the area was, and we think that buildings of larger size can go in there, and data centers of larger size with regulations can go in there, without creating adverse impacts on adjacent residential or commercial development.”

Through meetings and public comments, many have voiced concerns about noise, energy and water use, along with the sheer size of the campuses. Many have also pointed to northern Virginia, which has become the epicenter of data center growth.

“We’ve obviously seen and heard those concerns, and we’ve done research about facilities across the country, where they’ve had impacts on the neighbors,” Fritz said. “What we’ve found in those localities where they’ve had those impacts, it appears not to be so much a data center issue as a basic planning use, of, if it had been an office building, it would have impacted those neighbors, if it had been a warehouse, it would have impacted neighbors.”

The draft sets a number of different rules, called “performance requirements,” around the potential impacts, such as a closed-loop water system, noise buffers and studies, and landscaping guidelines.

“Those are all good,” McGinnis said. “We like those performance requirements. We think they need to be better, they need to be improved. But what’s concerning to us is that by right scenario, those data centers at 500,000 square feet are way too large.”

McGinnis added that there are still some steps the County could take to improve some of those requirements; for example, stricter ones when it comes to noise.

“The County staff have proposed that all data center projects would have to meet the County’s existing noise ordinance,” McGinnis said. “However, the existing noise ordinance was never written to anticipate data centers and their special noise challenges, so we believe that needs to be refined and revised.”

Fritz says the County staff has an interdepartmental team that works on aligning data center growth with Albemarle County’s Climate Action Plan.

But McGinnis says that doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences.

“There’s so much energy required to power those data centers, so, it does challenge their climate goals, without a doubt,” McGinnis said.

Another huge concern for many, and one of the largest takeaways from the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission study on data centers, is the impact these warehouses will have on the energy grid and on ratepayers’ energy bills. The report forecasts that with unconstrained demand from these centers, Virginia’s energy usage could increase by 183%. Without data centers, it would only increase by 15%.

“The unfortunate thing is, and I have to say this, is that the County does not have the regulatory authority to address that,” Fritz said. “That’s something that needs to be addressed by the General Assembly.”

Staff will present the ordinance to the Board at a work session next week, and the Board will provide more direction and feedback to staff based on that ordinance. County residents can provide feedback during the normal public comment period, or email BOS@albemarle.org.

The next step is a Planning Commission Public Hearing in September.

“We’ve been talking to other localities, other jurisdictions, water authorities, state agencies, Dominion power, there’s been a lot of work on this,” Fritz said. “Definitely not a silo, it’s been a lot of research.”

McGinnis says he and other environmental groups in the area want to see the by right zoning for those larger data centers changed, adding that transparency with the public about future data center negotiations is crucial.

“We’re concerned because that one component, that’s the outsized problem for us, is the by right scenario,” McGinnis said. “Why are we rushing so fast to open the door, when other localities have no problem attracting data center developers with a special use permit requirement?”

SOURCE: 29 NEWS