Spotsylvania Board adopts new data-center design standards with 300-ft buffer, 400-ft residential setback

The Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors voted to adopt Ordinance 23-190 on Dec. 9, establishing countywide design standards for data centers that set a 300-foot vegetated buffer from property lines, a 400-foot minimum setback from residential dwellings, a 50-foot streetscape buffer, and a 75-foot maximum building height for I-2 (industrial) zoned data center buildings. The ordinance also requires preservation of existing vegetation within buffers or, where gaps exist, installation of an eight-foot landscaped earthen berm; it restricts linear co-location of utilities through the 300-foot buffer and includes a staff-drafted "force and effect" clause to grandfather certain previously approved rezonings.

Planning staff summarized the major changes in the version advertised for adoption. "This is the version of the document that was advertised and considered by the planning commission and subject to your public hearing tonight," Planning Director Kimberly Romano told the board, and she highlighted the buffer, setback and…