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Spotsylvania adopts interim data‑center standards: 1,000‑foot setback and 75‑foot height cap
Summary
After hours of public comment and staff testimony, the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors adopted interim data‑center development standards including a 1,000‑foot setback from sensitive uses, a 75‑foot building height limit, preservation of mature buffers or 8‑foot berms, and prohibitions on groundwater cooling.
The Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors voted Aug. 12 to adopt interim development standards for data centers, responding to weeks of public concern about noise, water and power use, and neighborhood impacts.
The board approved a 1,000‑foot setback requirement measured from the adjacent property line of residences, parks, places of worship, schools, day‑care facilities and hospitals to any data‑center structure, and a 75‑foot maximum building height in industrial zoning where data centers are permitted. Both measures passed unanimously.
Planning staff presented the county’s inventory of approved and pending data‑center projects and the planning commission’s draft standards before the vote. "We estimated approximately 2,000 acres by‑right that could be developed as data center, though much of that acreage is constrained," Kimberly, county planning staff, told the board while outlining options to keep data centers as a permitted use in industrial districts with clear…
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