Henrico supervisors defer data‑center zoning; direct staff to require provisional use permits countywide

Henrico County’s Board of Supervisors on Wednesday deferred final votes on a comprehensive‑plan amendment and a package of zoning changes meant to regulate data centers and directed staff to prepare and re‑advertise an alternative that would remove a proposed White Oak overlay and require provisional use permits for data centers countywide.

The board voted to postpone action to its June 10 regular meeting after a two‑and‑a‑half hour joint public hearing with the Planning Commission at Highland Springs High School that drew dozens of speakers and repeated pleas from local residents and developers. The Planning Commission had recommended both the comprehensive‑plan amendment and the zoning ordinance changes earlier in the meeting.

County planning staff presented two linked proposals: a comprehensive‑plan amendment to create a Technology Boulevard special focus area that would include guidance and development objectives for data centers; and zoning ordinance changes to define data‑center types, create a White Oak Technology Park Area Overlay District, and require a provisional use permit (PUP) for new data centers built outside that overlay. Ben Seale of the county planning staff summarized the package to the joint bodies, telling members the amendments were intended to “guide development standards for data centers in the county.”

Supporters of the planning changes and developers said the White Oak Tech Park and associated covenants already concentrate large, campus‑style facilities in an industrial area and that data‑center development has provided county revenue. Several developers who said they had invested significant funds and months of work—one saying his firm had spent more than $700,000—asked the board to grandfather in plan‑of‑development applications already submitted so those projects could proceed by right rather than face a new PUP process.

Opponents and many residents in eastern Henrico urged stronger limits. Speakers raised water‑use and groundwater concerns, citing recent PFAS detections in wells and the White Oak Swamp; they urged stricter buffers, enforceable landscaping maintenance obligations, limits on light and noise, and closer scrutiny of diesel generator emissions and testing. Verina residents also described increased heavy‑truck traffic and called for protections for rural roads and wells. “We need real buffers between this heavy industry and the land zoned agriculturally and residentially right next to it,” said Stuart Goodwin, a resident of the Verina area.

Developers and their advisors urged transitional rules describing which existing applications should remain subject to the current code. A written letter submitted and read by land‑use counsel cited precedent in Loudoun, Fairfax, Stafford and Fauquier counties that added grandfathering clauses when those counties changed data‑center rules.

The Planning Commission first voted to recommend the comprehensive‑plan amendment and the zoning revisions, including creation of the White Oak overlay. Planning Commission motions were made by Commissioner Mackey; a subsequent motion to recommend the overlay zoning carried, with the minute transcript noting one abstention and one absence.

On the Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Nelson moved to defer both the plan amendment and the zoning ordinance to the June 10 regular meeting. He then moved — and the board approved — direction to staff to draft an amended zoning ordinance that removes the proposed White Oak overlay so that a PUP would be required for any new data center in the county’s O (office), B (business) or M (industrial) districts. County Attorney Newby explained that if the board adopts that alternative staff draft the effect would be to require a public‑hearing PUP for new data‑center proposals anywhere in the county, including White Oak, unless a property is vested under existing approvals.

Board members said the deferral and direction were intended to give staff time to prepare the alternative text and to allow another public hearing after re‑advertising. Staff told the boards that material amendments to the ordinance would require re‑advertisement and a later hearing. The board also heard staff explain that many parcels inside the White Oak area are already master‑planned or vested; Seale said the overlay district as proposed would have encompassed roughly 3,090 acres in the White Oak Technology Park area.

The meeting record shows competing priorities: developers who said they reasonably relied on existing code and county staff guidance and residents who expressed immediate concerns about health, water and traffic. The board’s June 10 meeting will re‑open public hearings on the amendments and present the alternative draft that removes the overlay and requires PUPs countywide.

Votes at a glance: the Planning Commission voted to recommend both the comprehensive‑plan amendment and the zoning ordinance changes (motion by Commissioner Mackey; votes recorded with one abstention and one absence). The Board of Supervisors voted to defer both items to June 10 and directed staff to draft and re‑advertise an amended zoning ordinance removing the overlay and requiring provisional use permits for data centers countywide.

The board and planning staff said the public record and written comments submitted before the hearing will remain available for review as staff prepares the alternate ordinance language and the re‑advertised hearing date approaches.