The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted 6-3 on April 10 to approve a pared-down version of a data center application that the board last month narrowly voted to deny.

The March vote was the first time in Loudoun County’s history that supervisors denied a data center application based on potential constraints on the electric grid. The application, known as Belmont Innovation Campus, then sought to build 2.9 million square feet of data centers on 112 acres along Goose Creek on the west side of Belmont Ridge Road. The developer, SDC Capital Partners, initially asked for 4.8 million square feet.

But after the board nixed the application on March 13, the developer agreed to reduce the size of the campus to 1.3 million square feet — the same amount of floor space allowed by right without any legislative approvals. Supervisors then voted 4-3-2 on March 19 to reconsider the application and approved the revised version on April 10.

The application asked supervisors to rezone 70 acres of the property from general industrial and agricultural/residential uses to Planned Development — Industrial Park zoning. The remaining 42 acres were already zoned for Industrial Park development. The 2019 General Plan places most of the property in the Suburban Employment Place Type, which considers data centers a “conditional use.” Data centers are a “core use” in the property’s 29 acres located in the Suburban Industrial/Mineral Extraction Place Type.

Two planned by-right data center campuses are in the surrounding area — one owned by Vantage Data Centers immediately to the north and another owned by JK Land Holdings to the northeast across Belmont Ridge Road.

In exchange for the rezoning, the developer originally proffered several road improvements, design standards and environmental contributions, including 10,000 square feet of solar panels on all data center buildings; a 500-foot buffer along Goose Creek; tree conservation and reforestation; and native species planting and invasive species control. SDC had also agreed to provide a 19-acre park area along the creek with a trail, pavilion and canoe/kayak launch for public use.

However, SDC removed some of those proffers ahead of the April 10 public hearing — including the solar panels, park pavilion, canoe/kayak launch, and a proffer to use low-noise-emitting fans for the data center cooling system.

Additionally, SDC removed one of the two proposed substations on the property.

Though they agreed to cap the development at 1.3 million square feet, the applicant still asked for a special exception to increase the floor area ratio from 0.6 to 1.0. Vice Chair Juli Briskman (D-Algonkian) pressed them on this.

“I’m not able to put my finger on what the benefit is for you, and I have doubts that it’s just the time,” she said.

Ron Meyer, the founder of the consulting firm RMA and a former Broad Run District supervisor, represented SDC at the meeting along with land use attorney Erin Swisshelm. Meyer said that, if the application was denied, the developer would have to redo the site plan, and Dominion Energy would have to apply for a permit to build the substation. “There are definitely real time considerations,” he said.

Of the 10 people who spoke during the public hearing April 10, nine were opposed — including representatives from environmental and land use activist groups.

Gem Bingol, a senior land use field representative with the Piedmont Environmental Council, said the proposal “adds more land for data center development with more energy demand.” Because the formerly agricultural-zoned area is right along the creek, she said, a by-right application would have kept the campus over 900 square feet from the creek.

While the rezoning made the entire parcel zoned Industrial Park, which allows data centers by right, the proffer statement — including the developer’s commitment not to exceed 1.3 million square feet — is legally binding.

But speaking on behalf of the Goose Creek Scenic River Advisory Committee was Ben Winn — the sole person asking the board to approve Belmont Innovation because of its “great environmental benefits.”

“We know what a by-right (data) center looks like. It’s right to the north of the property,” he said, referring to the Vantage campus. “They have a 300-foot buffer. It is paltry. I mean, they have annihilated everything down to 300 feet. We really want the extra 200 feet that Belmont is going to give the creek.”

“Give us this green space. It’s vital,” he asked of supervisors.

After making the motion to approve the application, Supervisor Mike Turner (D-Ashburn), who represents the area, criticized the Piedmont Environmental Council.

While he has “enormous respect” for the PEC, he said, the organization’s recent messaging about Belmont Innovation was “patently false” and contained “major factual errors. And I heard them all presented back in the public comments tonight.”

A post on the PEC’s website said that SDC “could also amend the proffers in the future to allow even more space, without another legislative application and without the new standards.”

Turner then clarified “exactly what the facts are.”

“There is going to be 1.32 million-square-foot data center on this land, no matter how we vote tonight. ... It is illegal for them, after they proffer a cap of 1.32 million square feet, to build any more than 1.32 million square feet,” he said, adding that SDC, like other applicants, can come back with another legislative application later.

He said a by-right application under the new zoning ordinance would “cram the 1.3 million square feet into a narrow strip a half a mile long right fronting Belmont Ridge Road that will be 100 feet high.”

“We don’t know what we will get if we ask for a by-right application,” he continued. “We have no idea. What I have right now is the same 1.329 million square feet with a substantial environmental package that can never legally be increased without coming back to this board and asking for permission.”

In an emailed statement to the Times-Mirror the next day, Bingol said, “To clarify, we know that the applicant would have to get Board approval for a proffer amendment, but the point was that proffers can be amended without submitting a whole new legislative data center application and the new standards would still not apply.”

“We made no mention of that point in our email or social media post,” she said.

Supervisor Matt Letourneau (R-Dulles) echoed Turner’s comments.

“There seems to be somehow a sudden belief out there — at least among the speakers tonight — that a massive, vertical data center is less intense for the public than something on a little bit more land,” he said, adding that nobody wins by “throwing out the type of protections in this data center application.”

“Absolutely yes, this is a better deal than what would be by right in the zoning ordinance. And it’s not close,” he said.

But three supervisors — Vice Chair Juli Briskman (D-Algonkian), Laura TeKrony (D-Little River) and Chair Phyllis Randall (D-At Large) — voted “nay”.

Briskman, who has long been against rezoning for data center development, said the property “doesn’t have to be a data center.”

“I was so proud of us to finally say ‘no,’” she said before the vote.

TeKrony said that “power infrastructure is still a concern for me.”

In 2022, Dominion Energy revealed it had failed to upgrade its transmission infrastructure quickly enough to keep up with future demand for data centers in eastern Loudoun County, the Times-Mirror previously reported. This heightened concerns about the electric grid’s capacity and sent shockwaves through the data center industry.

Dominion has rushed to build more transmission infrastructure to make up for its miscalculation, helping spark backlash from some eastern Loudoun residents concerned about the aesthetics of building more tall metal poles and electric wires along major corridors like Route 7.

Knowing the application would pass, Randall said she was voting against it as “a message vote” to the data center community. “We have not met with the Data Center Coalition in over two years,” she said, acknowledging that communication does go both ways. “The discussions we used to have with them all the time just stopped cold.”

“At this moment, we need to come back to the table and start having these discussions again,” she said. While some data center companies are “still having the conversations with us,” she said, “there’s a lot of data centers who just kind of come out of nowhere and it’s almost like a threat.”

“We cannot keep doing it like this,” she said.

In closing, Turner said that the board has worked “valiantly” and got the project reduced from 4.8 million to 1.3 million square feet.

“I think the problem in Loudoun County is data centers,” he said. “... I do not mean that they’re evil. I do not mean that they’re out to destroy the community. On the contrary, I’ve found everybody in the data centers to be very caring, very aware of the impact they’re having on the environment.”

“They are stuck in a massive, explosive demand for their product in this worldwide market,” he continued. “And they have to respond to that market the best that they can.”

But for Loudoun County specifically, he said, “the problem is the data centers. It’s the fossil fuel they consume. It’s the overhead transmission lines that they’re putting over our schools and our neighborhoods. It’s that growth. And we have an obligation to our citizens to do everything we can to get our arms around that growth from this point forward.”

“We are gonna get a data center. Let’s carry on the fight. But this one should pass,” he said.