Loudoun Approves Controversial Data Center After Initial Opposition
A plan to build a large data center on a 106-acre site in Loudoun County can move forward after initially facing rejection.
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors last week approved Compass Data Centers' proposal to rezone the site for a 750K SF data center along the Dulles Greenway west of Goose Creek, the developer announced Friday.
After Dallas-based Compass proposed the project in May, the county planning staff said in September it could not recommend approval because of the site's location in a largely residential area about five miles from the county's main concentration of data centers.
Ahead of a December vote on the proposal, in which the plan was sent back for revisions, County Board Chair Phyllis Randall said the board received 380 emails from constituents in opposition to the plan. Roughly a dozen opponents attended the December business meeting.
"Our team worked closely with the county to make a series of revisions to our plan to ensure that those environmental concerns are all addressed, and I see this as a model for how data center companies, counties and residents can work together on these complex projects so everyone's needs are met," Compass Senior Vice President Chris Curtis said in a release.
Compass plans to begin site work in February and aims to deliver the first data center this fall. It said it has already received interest from major cloud providers in using the facilities. Loudoun's data center market has been booming in recent years, and at least two additional 100-plus-acre sites in the county have been proposed as data center campuses since October.
