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Council approves Planned Development for 173‑acre Forbes Road data‑center campus
Summary
Midlothian City Council voted 6–1 to approve a Planned Development rezoning for a 173.94‑acre site on Forbes Road, allowing a phased data‑center campus with multiple large buildings and a dedicated electrical substation.
Midlothian City Council on June 24 approved a Planned Development rezoning for a 173.94‑acre tract along Forbes Road to permit a data‑center campus, voting 6–1 in favor.
City planning staff described the site as consistent with the comprehensive plan’s industrial module and told council the PD allows up to eight roughly 300,000‑square‑foot buildings in phases, with a proposed electrical substation and mechanical cooling. Staff said the PD sets a maximum impervious cover of 70 percent and a maximum building height of 75 feet; rooftop mechanical screening was shown on the submitted elevations. The developer’s representative said the campus would be built in phases and that the developer’s typical model is to develop a campus and then sell or lease to data‑center operators.
Daniel Fox, zoning counsel for the applicant, said the plan had been vetted with staff and reiterated that the property is not in the rail port but sits southwest of the rail port area. The applicant estimated the first building would employ at least 30 local workers and that additional jobs could come with further occupancy or multiple tenants.
Council members questioned details about parking ratios, water use and phasing. Planning staff said the PD is more conservative than some recent data‑center projects on parking (the proposed PD proposes about one space per 7,500 square feet of data‑center floor area, compared with roughly one per 3,500 ft2 in a recent nearby approval) and limits water‑cooled equipment to a specified daily gallonage per building and an overall limit on the number of water‑cooled buildings.
The council’s approval includes a requirement that detailed site plans, drainage plans and any major construction variance return to council for final approvals and that the developer extend water infrastructure along Forbes Road when development occurs.
Speakers for the application included Daniel Fox (zoning attorney) and representatives from the development team. No members of the public spoke at the hearing. The ordinance passed 6–1.
What to watch: Future detailed site plans and infrastructure commitments — particularly water‑line extensions and the electrical substation siting — will appear before council as the project moves into engineering and permitting.
