This text was taken from an email alert sent out on March 27, 2025. Sign up for email alerts →

Dear Supporter,

First, I’d like to give a big thank you to everyone who wrote to the Culpeper Town Council or spoke at one of the council meetings about the Culpeper Technology Campus proffer amendment. I’ll go into greater detail below, but to quickly recap: it’s not everything we wanted, but because of your persistence, it is much better than it would have been if no one had spoken at all. 

We’re not out of the woods yet, though: the speculative DARLO substation conditional use permit application comes to the county Board of Supervisors April 1, and until Culpeper changes the zoning regulations for data centers, we could see more of these by-right projects popping up.

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County Planning Commission Unanimously Recommends Denial of Substation for DARLO Data Center, Board Hearing Scheduled for April 1

On March 12, the Culpeper County Planning Commission unanimously recommended the denial of a 300 MW substation for the DARLO Project, a speculative data center campus outside the Culpeper Tech Zone. DARLO will come before the Board of Supervisors Tues., April 1 at 7 p.m., at 302 North Main Street. 

Members of the Board of Supervisors have consistently said they do not want data centers outside the Culpeper Tech Zone, a tax incentive area near McDevitt Drive. The board has even reduced the size of the Tech Zone to consolidate the impacts of data centers and their associated transmission lines into one area. This move was also intended to help Culpeper maintain a balanced portfolio of industries and not become overreliant on data centers — which we support, given how fickle data center tax revenue can be. 

Because the DARLO project is far away from the other data center projects, it will require a separate new transmission line that will impact Culpeper’s farms and businesses. We are also concerned that a data center at this location could interfere with important public resources like Eastern View High School, the planned elementary school at Greens Corner, and even the new community pool under construction at the Culpeper Field House. And, in addition to noise and air pollution from diesel generators, the construction traffic for this speculative campus will likely impact Braggs Corner Road, which has already been the site of numerous accidents. 

Culpeper County needs to change its zoning for data centers, which are still considered a by-right use in all industrial zones. This means data centers do not need planning commission or board approval to develop or redevelop on an existing industrially zoned site. Even though Culpeper requires a conditional use permit for substations like DARLO, this provides limited means of control, and we are concerned that the data center industry can and will find ways around this check. Earlier this month, Loudoun County, widely regarded as the data center capital of the world, removed data centers as a by-right use, and the Town of Culpeper plans to follow suit in its ordinance overhaul (see more below). 

If the Board of Supervisors wants to retain control of where data centers are built in Culpeper, they need to act NOW.

Board of Supervisors Public Hearing
Tuesday, April 1 @ 7 p.m.
302 N. Main Street, Culpeper

We encourage you to come to the hearing and ask that the Board of Supervisors deny the proposed DARLO data center substation and remove data centers as a by-right use in Culpeper County. If you cannot attend in person, email your comments to the Board using the link below.

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Town of Culpeper Votes to Approve New Data Center Noise Standards

The Town of Culpeper voted 6:2 to adopt the proposed changes to the Culpeper Technology Campus proffers March 11. Although PEC opposed the amendment because it will allow for a noticeably higher level of noise in nearby residential areas, the applicant did make some significant improvements. Specifically, they withdrew language that would have exempted generator maintenance and generator operations during power shortages (as opposed to emergencies or outages) from compliance with any noise standards. 

This is a significant win because the diesel backup generators are often the loudest piece of equipment on a data center campus. A 2.1-million-square-foot data campus like the Culpeper Technology Campus will likely have over 100 generators the size of train cars or tractor-trailers at full build-out, all of which must be run regularly for maintenance purposes. We are also glad the Town Council hired a sound engineer to educate them about data center noise and hope this information will help them create better protections for Culpeper residents in the future. 

Thank you so much to everyone who wrote in or spoke at the meetings! Letting the Town Council and the data center companies know that you were paying attention to this issue has made a difference. 

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Town of Culpeper Ordinance Overhaul

The Town of Culpeper is currently working on a comprehensive overhaul of the existing zoning and subdivision ordinances in chapters 22 and 27 of the Town Code. The overhaul will transition the town from strictly Traditional Zoning to a hybrid code that includes Form Based Zoning, which concentrates more on how buildings look and less on what occurs within them. Zoning and subdivision regulations are key tools that guide land use and development in the town. The regulations control where various land uses may exist, how sites are laid out and designed, and other factors that help establish the town’s overall character.

Over the past months, the town planning staff has been receiving local feedback on the proposed changes and will hold a series of public hearings and open houses to receive citizen feedback.

Open houses will be held at the Economic Development Center at 803 South Main Street from 1-4 p.m. April 3, 9, 14, and 22, May 2, 8, 12, 22, and 27, and June 2 and 9. The next Planning Commission Public Hearing will be held April 15 at the Economic Development Center at 803 South Main Street starting at 6 p.m. 

The Town Council Public Hearings will take place May 13 and June 10 at 302 North Main Street, starting at 7 p.m.

You can submit your feedback on the proposed changes to Andrew Hopewell at AHopewell@culpeperva.gov, or come to the meetings and tell your local decision-makers in person!

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Thank you,

Sarah Parmelee
Land Use Field Representative
Culpeper County
sparmlee@pecva.org
(540) 347-2334 ext. 7045