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First, heartfelt thanks to all who wrote in or attended the planning commission hearing on the Clevenger’s Corner proffer amendment last week. The County Planning Commission recommended the amendment be denied, just as we’d hoped! While the proffer amendment will now be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors, which can overrule the Planning Commission, the overwhelming message was that community members do not like the changes and do not want data centers at Clevenger’s was received. We will let you know when the date for that Board hearing has been set.
In the meantime, we want to make sure you are aware of two other important issues you can weigh in on at both the County and Town levels:
- Preserving rural land (Wed, Nov. 20: County Board meeting)
- Maintaining data center noise regulations (Tues, Nov. 19: Town Planning Commission meeting)
Read below for more info.
Culpeper County Considers Commonsense Subdivision Limits to Protect Farmland
Culpeper County is the bullseye at the center of rapidly growing Fredericksburg, Charlottesville and Northern Virginia. Cheap rural land and low taxes make Culpeper an attractive place to live, but increased residential development in remote areas creates problems such as hour-long bus routes for schoolchildren, conflicts between residents and farmers and rural roads overwhelmed with traffic. This uncontrolled residential growth not only consumes farms and forestland, but also strains county resources and can lead to higher taxes for everyone.
Culpeper County is trying to address the issue of sprawl by placing commonsense limitations on the Rural Area (RA) and Agriculture Land (A1) zoning districts.
Ask the County Board to Support the Proposed Zoning Amendment
We hope you’ll join us in supporting the proposed zoning amendment
in person Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. at Eastern View High School,
at 16332 Cyclone Way, Culpeper.
You can also submit your comments in writing to the Culpeper County
Planning Department at [email protected].
The Proposed Changes
Currently, landowners in the A1 and RA districts can subdivide parcels of land once every five years. The minimum lot size for these subdivisions is five and three acres, respectively, with some additional rules for parcels that do not front the road.
The proposed amendment would keep the option for landowners to subdivide once every five years, but the minimum lot sizes would increase from five acres to 10 acres in the A1 district and from three acres to six acres in the RA districts. However, the time-based method is under legal threat and may be at risk, which is why Culpeper County is introducing a second option with this amendment.
This new option would allow landowners to bypass the time-based system and “cash out” on their land by exercising all their subdivision rights at once. Under the amendment, landowners would be able to create a cluster of smaller lots with a two-acre minimum lot size, while preserving at least 50% of the total acreage of the parent parcel.
Because adding cluster subdivisions will, by necessity, create private roads, the County is also updating the private road standards to ensure that these roads are adequately sized and constructed to service the number of houses they serve. This will save the County the trouble of having to address improperly designed roads in the future.
Striking the Balance
Farmland is being lost to sprawl across Virginia, but enacting commonsense practices like these will help slow growth, reduce pressure, keep taxes low, and still allow landowners to subdivide and sell their land. Those who want further subdivision of their land can still apply for a special use permit or rezoning to accomplish their goal.
We hope you’ll join us in supporting the proposed zoning amendment in person Wednesday, Nov. 20 at Eastern View High School, or by submitting your comments in writing to the Culpeper County Planning Department at [email protected].
Town of Culpeper: Culpeper Technology Campus seeks to weaken noise standards in new proffer amendment
The Culpeper Technology Campus is a 2+ million-square-foot data center campus straddling the Town/County line near McDevitt Drive. The initial rezoning was submitted in 2023 by Peterson Co., a well-known development firm in Northern Virginia, but recently, international data center company Stack Infrastructure has come forward as the owner/operator of the facility. Weak proffers have already allowed Peterson Co. and Stack Infrastructure to make significant changes to the original proposal, including moving a data center to the corner of McDevitt Drive and East Chandler Avenue and adding a 205-foot tall water tower to the project. Now, they are asking to change the noise standards that were agreed upon in the original proffers signed in 2023.
Proffers are a set of additional promises tied to a development. They often include monetary contributions to the locality or enhanced environmental standards to help mitigate a project’s impact on the community. Developers also offer proffers to incentivize elected officials to support a project. However, these legally binding agreements can be renegotiated or backtracked multiple times before the project is completed—which is what the developers behind the Culpeper Technology Campus are attempting to do now.
The current proffers already allow the data center to produce noise at levels higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). They would also require the Town to hire an outside noise expert and potentially purchase additional equipment in order to measure and enforce the noise levels. The proposed proffer amendment would be simpler to measure and cheaper for the town, but would potentially allow for more data center noise disruption to surrounding residential areas.
We think Culpeper residents deserve better, especially if they’re giving the data center campus millions of dollars in tax breaks.
This amendment is coming before the Town of Culpeper Planning Commission because the noise standards are specifically referenced in the proffers. The Planning Commission can only recommend that the Town Council approve or deny the amendment, and the Town Council can negotiate changes.
Ask the Town Planning Commission to Reject the Proffer Amendment
You can urge the Planning Commission to protect residents’ wellbeing
by recommending denial of the proffer amendments.
Attend the Town of Culpeper Planning Commission public hearing Tuesday, Nov. 19
at the Economic Development Center at 803 S. Main Street, Culpeper, at 6 p.m.
You can also submit comments by writing an email to Director of Planning
Andrew Hopewell at [email protected].
Controlling data center noise pollution is a matter of public health; however, this nuisance can also impact local businesses — especially when industrial noise pollution is at risk of disrupting Culpeper’s East Street Historic District and East Davis Street — both crucial parts of the town’s economy.
The Town of Culpeper was not afraid to negotiate to get a new water tower paid for entirely by Stack Infrastructure, and yet, it has not made any changes to Stack’s proposed noise regulation amendment. We want to know why the Town Council seems uninterested in seeking an expert review of the changes or negotiating with the data center developers for better noise standards to protect the health and quality of life of Town residents.
Encourage your elected officials to recommend denial of this proffer amendment by attending the public hearing Tuesday, Nov. 19 at the Economic Development Center or by submitting comments in writing to [email protected].
Thank you so much for your support and for taking an active part in steering the future of Culpeper County. If you have any questions about these developments, PEC’s position, or how you can take action, please reach out to one of our team members.
Sincerely,
Sarah Parmelee
Land Use Field Representative
Culpeper County
[email protected]
