The King George County Board of Supervisors deferred a vote on a polarizing data center project after a public hearing last month.
But the issue was revisited Tuesday when the board met to vote on a rezoning request for Green Energy Ventures (GEV), a project that includes 13 data center buildings on approximately 300 acres at the northwest intersection of Kings Highway (State Route 3) and Bloomsbury Road.
The supervisors voted 3-2 to approve the rezoning from Agricultural to Industrial and then held a subsequent vote on a special exception permit for the project to exceed the county’s maximum height limit of 50 feet. The permit allows the project a height limit of 65 feet for a two-story building and 90 feet for three stories.
Supervisors Cathy Binder and William Davis of the Shiloh and Dahlgren districts, respectively, voted against the rezoning. Davis voted in favor of the height limits after the rezoning was approved, leaving Binder as the lone dissenter on that matter.
Binder said she is concerned that the project doesn’t yet have a power source, but the applicant told her that her job is to decide on land use and that she shouldn’t have a future business use prediction or monetization timetable on her mind.
“You’re asking us to make a vote on an unknown, and that bothers me,” Binder said.
The project must be 250 feet away from Route 3, at least 200 feet from Bloomsbury Road and at least 70 feet from all other adjacent property lines.
Potable water will initially be served by temporary groundwater wells, but groundwater cannot be used for water-cooling data center equipment. If the King George Service Authority water system becomes available to service the property, the applicant must abandon and discontinue the use of temporary groundwater wells.
Only generators that meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s Tier 4, or equivalent, emission standards are permitted. A total of 6.5 million square feet of data center use is proposed.
An 18-acre parcel will be dedicated to the county and/or service authority.
GEV also proffered $3 million to the county once it releases the first building permit, $500,000 to train public safety personnel, and an aerial ladder truck for the county’s fire department to be able to service the extended height limit.
The board members who supported the rezoning said the project fits in with the county’s vision for land use in that area. County staff and the planning commission both recommended approving the project.
Supervisor Ken Stroud said the potential power issues aren’t much different from any concerns he’d have with another business in an Industrial zone.
“Anything that goes into an Industrial area, typically activities like manufacturing and stuff, require a lot of power,” Stroud said. “So, regardless of what goes in there, there’s going to be an issue of power.”
In other business, the board unanimously approved the Powhatan Road Solar Farm project after a public hearing. Project representatives and property owner Larry Carr Jr. applied for a special exception permit to construct a medium-scale solar energy facility on approximately 24 acres currently zoned Agricultural. The proposed project is located at 8375 Powhatan Road.
