On the Ground Updates – March 2025

Posted on by PEC

Albemarle & Charlottesville

  • The fifth annual Piedmont Mobility Summit, organized by PEC with support from a broad coalition of partners, brought together more than 150 community members over two days in March. This year’s summit focused on the ambitious Three Notched Trail project, which will provide a safe, accessible pathway for walking and biking from Charlottesville to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The summit included presentations, discussions, facilitated planning workshops and lots of information and inspiration.
  • PEC worked for over a year to convince the county Board of Supervisors that the zoning ordinance needed to be revised so that data centers could only be approved via special use permit versus by-right in industrial districts. The board finally took action and approved a resolution in January directing staff to take a two-phased approach to developing a draft zoning text amendment. An initial amendment would only allow data centers via special use permit in industrial districts; a second amendment would detail performance requirements for data center applications.
  • The Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan update process is currently focused on drafting all chapters, and after hosting Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors work sessions for each draft chapter, finalizing all draft chapters. Though PEC supports much in the completed draft chapters, we continue to have strong concerns about the county’s lack of support for its own conservation programs and ambivalence toward maintaining its effective Growth Management Policy, which works to protect the county from sprawl. PEC continues to work with the community to advocate for these programs and policies.

Clarke

  • The Clarke County Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission are embarking on an updated Rural Lands Plan, a major project in 2025. The Board of Supervisors has done an initial review of the plans and returned it to the Planning Commission for adjustments. The Comprehensive Plan subcommittee met in January, and we anticipate an initial draft of the new plan for the commission this summer with a final draft for public review and input by the late fall.
  • A second major project for the county this year is a new zoning district for the Double Tollgate Area. A draft first came to the Planning Commision in March with language pertaining to land use and use regulations, such as density, building heights, and buffering and screening requirements. The Planning Commission will likely hold public hearings for the plan in May before it moves to the Board of Supervisors for action.
  • The county has retained the services of the Commonwealth Preservation Group to begin work on the rural villages overlay districts. The continued availability of funds for portions of this project is in question, given the current status of federal grant money.

Culpeper

  • On Dec. 3, the Board of Supervisors approved an amended proffer agreement for Clevenger’s Village, also known as Stonehaven. The new language specifically prohibits data centers on the site, among other changes. After first denying that data centers could be developed under the current zoning, the developer admitted that the use had been grandfathered in. While we would have liked to have seen other changes, we considered data centers the greatest threat to the area and were glad to see it addressed.
  • In January, Dominion Energy presented the Culpeper Tech Zone project to the Board of Supervisors. This project includes a significant upgrade to the existing transmission corridor and four substations. Stephen Precker of Dominion Energy indicated that recent data center approvals in the Town of Culpeper were driving this project, which would place several substations near residential areas, including an affordable housing complex currently under construction.
  • After a Feb. 19 work session, the Board of Supervisors has decided to pause changes to the rural subdivision ordinance. PEC supports the proposed change to increase the minimum lot size allowed in Culpeper’s agriculturally zoned lands. The County has been subject to increasing development pressure from Northern Virginia and Fredericksburg.
  • On Mar 11, the Town Council voted to accept a proffer amendment proposed by STACK Infrastructure, the data center operator behind the planned Culpeper Technology Campus. The amendment will increase how much noise pollution the data centers can emit in residential areas and exempt construction noise from any noise restriction, but also included needed changes to how the noise is measured. Thanks to efforts from the residents of Culpeper, the council removed noise standard exemptions for backup generator testing and operation during power shortages (as opposed to emergencies). We see the issue of noise returning to Culpeper for both the town and the county as the data centers begin to break ground.

Fauquier

  • Thanks to thoughtful public comments and strong advocacy by Protect Catlett, Citizens for Fauquier County and Protect Fauquier, a developer withdrew its application to rezone 60 acres of land in Catlett for a 1.4 million-square-foot data center campus with an electric substation. Instead, the site may be developed as a warehouse. Though not yet finalized, preapplication materials filed in December indicate that the warehouse would be non-distributing, and any proposal for distribution would have to undergo special exception approval. A warehouse would have a far lesser impact on traffic, noise and air quality than either a data center or a distribution center. PEC and residents will remain vigilant as the developer continues to weigh its options.
  • The Board of Supervisors recently approved Sun Tribe Solar’s special exception permit application for a 161-acre solar project in Remington, located on land owned by Luck Stone that will eventually be occupied by an expansion of its existing quarry operation.
  • At its Feb. 20 meeting, the Fauquier County Planning Commission unanimously rejected Open Roads Renewables’ application for a Comprehensive Plan Compliance Review for its agrivoltaics project in Midland. Open Roads had incorporated the majority of PEC’s feedback on the company’s drafted conditions of approval.
  • The County Department of Community Development accepted development proposals for three different data center campuses in Remington. Already, the county has approved 1.8 million square feet at Remington Technology Park. Now, county staff are reviewing three proposals from Convergent, SAMX and Gigaland totalling an additional 4 million square feet. Public hearings with the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors on these proposals can be expected this year.

Greene

  • PEC continues to closely follow the county’s efforts to address water supply planning and implementation of water supply projects. This work includes funding and building a new reservoir and replacing treatment plants and aging sewer and water supply piping. As the Virginia Piedmont continues to experience extended periods of drought, water supply infrastructure is a priority in Greene.
  • Greene County has adopted a new ordinance for Technology/Flex/Research and Development Districts in part to attract companies involved with defense intelligence work associated with Rivanna Station in Albemarle, the location of three Department of Defense intelligence agencies. Greene and Albemarle counties have been working together to establish a defense intelligence innovation corridor extending from Rivanna Station in Albemarle nearly 9 miles into Greene County. That initiative is part of a regional effort to build a defense intelligence innovation corridor extending from Fauquier County to Charlottesville.

Loudoun

  • The Planning Commission finished work on phase one of its Data Center Comprehensive Plan Amendment and Zoning Ordinance Amendment and moved these onto the Board of Supervisors with a recommendation of denial and six additional suggested edits to the scope of work. These amendments would allow the county to better manage data center development. The board held a public hearing on Feb. 12, and on Mar. 4 discussed the potential to grandfather (exempt) any data centers from the new regulations. PEC and partner organizations held a rally before the board’s Mar. 18 vote to pass the data center amendments. The board also voted to grandfather the 22 by-right and nine legislative applications already in the system, with a key exception that requires board review of any data center application within 500 feet of a residential dwelling.
  • Loudoun County began work in earnest at the end of 2024 on the Western Loudoun Rural Uses and Standards Comprehensive Plan Amendment and Zoning Ordinance Amendment, which would address long-standing regulations for the Rural Policy Area that have negatively impacted farms and other rural businesses and reduce impacts on neighboring property owners. The first of seven projected intensive stakeholder work sessions took place in the Transportation and Land Use Subcommittee of the Board of Supervisors. The second session, on Jan. 29, covered agricultural processing and farm worker housing. The sessions are designed as roundtable discussions involving stakeholders, the supervisors covering western Loudoun, two planning commissioners, and county staff. These sessions are loosely scheduled through January 2026, with the next planned for Apr. 24 covering value-added farming, lot yield calculations, and “other farm issues.”
  • Proposed recommendations from staff and consultants for the county’s U.S. Route 50 Traffic Safety and Operations Study raised a public outcry at the Feb. 3 public input session. The recommendations included turn lanes at several intersections, road-widening between the roundabouts east of U.S. Route 15, and additional lanes on the roundabouts. Supervisor TeKrony has arranged for an additional public input on March 26, after which, final recommendations will be determined.

Madison

  • The on-again, off-again plan to repurpose the former Criglersville Elementary School into a boutique hotel can now move forward in earnest after the county approved the rezoning of the property in January. Separately, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources approved the property for designation on the Virginia Landmarks Register in December, opening the door for the owner to pursue historic rehabilitation tax credit improvements to the building. The Department of Historic Resources will nominate the property for recognition on the National Register of Historic Places. PEC believes the slightly scaled-back plan approved under the rezoning will allow for preservation and provide a new economic use for the historic building, while addressing potential impacts on residents, who have expressed concerns about increased noise and traffic in the rural village.
  • The process of updating the county’s Comprehensive Plan, which started in November 2022, is moving closer to completion. A final draft of the document is expected to be presented to the public for comment in April. The Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors will then have to approve the final version. PEC has been engaged in the process from the beginning and will share any upcoming public input opportunities, as well as continue to advocate for language that promotes conservation and smart growth.

Orange

  • The lawsuit brought by the American Battlefield Trust and others against Orange County — citing violations of state law and local ordinance in its 2023 approval of the Wilderness Crossing rezoning — finally had its first day in court in late March. The judge did not issue a ruling from the bench, and is not expected to issue a decision on whether or not to allow the case to proceed until the summer. While not a plaintiff to the lawsuit, PEC has actively opposed Wilderness Crossing from the beginning. Most recently, PEC filed an “amicus curiae” (a Latin phrase meaning “friend of the court”) brief earlier in March, highlighting how Wilderness Crossing would undermine the long history of public and private investment in protecting natural and historic resources along the Route 3 corridor, and stating that the public is entitled to a transparent process when elected officials are contemplating far-reaching land-use decisions that can transform the region and the landscape. The rezoning allows for a sprawling, 2,600-acre mix of up to 32 million square feet of energy- and water-hungry data centers, 5,000 homes and hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial space.
  • The Orange County Planning Commission is drafting proposed changes to the county’s zoning districts. The commission is considering dividing the current Agricultural (A) district into Agricultural 1 (A1) and Agricultural 2 (A2) districts. The A1 district would potentially be more protective of farmland than the current A district, while A2 might be similar to the current A district. Additionally, the commission is discussing the creation of a variety of overlay districts, which could be a method of providing an additional layer of protection for sensitive resources. A technology district under consideration would set some guidelines for data centers. PEC will monitor these discussions closely and will promote public input opportunities.

Rappahannock

  • On Jan. 15, PEC’s Land Use Field Representative Sarah Parmelee gave a presentation about data centers to the Rappahannock County Planning Commission. Residents were concerned that Rappahannock was vulnerable because data centers were not explicitly prohibited in the county code. Because Rappahannock has very little industrial land and lacks infrastructure such as municipal water or fiber optic cable, we are less concerned and advised that Rappahannock leave its code as it currently stands. PEC is concerned that explicitly prohibiting data centers could invite a reversal at a future date.
  • During its Jan. 13 meeting, the Washington Town Council unanimously approved the contract for the multi-use trail through Washington, funded in part by PEC’s Krebser Fund. The trail will connect the Rush River Commons and Washington post office to the town center in one direction and to the Washington School on Mt. Salem Avenue in the other direction. Given limited sidewalk access throughout the town, this new trail will provide safe access to residents and visitors.
  • The Sperryville Community Alliance released the Sperryville Pedestrian Safety and Accessibility Plan in January. The plan details 24 infrastructure recommendations, including roundabouts, new sidewalks and crosswalks, speed limit reductions and a bridge replacement to make Sperryville a more pedestrian-friendly village. The next step will be submitting the plan to VDOT for review. The alliance has identified two potential VDOT programs to support the improvements: the SMART SCALE Program and the Transportation Alternatives Program.
  • The Inn at Little Washington has proposed a new plan for the spa expansion originally presented to the town’s architectural review board in May 2023. The new proposal details an entirely separate building to be constructed near the intersection of Main Street and Harris Hollow Road. According to the architect overseeing the project, the two-story building will cover 18,000 square feet. Though members of the architectural review board voiced concerns about the design and scale of the building, the proposal was ultimately approved in January.

This article appeared in the 2025 Spring edition of The Piedmont Environmental Council’s member newsletter, The Piedmont View. If you’d like to become a PEC member or renew your membership, please visit pecva.org/join.