The Spotsylvania County Comprehensive Plan still lists data centers as a targeted industry for future growth.
But the board of supervisors’ Jan. 13 vote to ask the planning commission for a recommendation regarding the requirement of a Special Use Permit (SUP) in industrial-zoned areas, thus eliminating any by-right development, left some developers and commissioners perplexed.
Kyle Crosby, head of land investments with KETTLER, a real estate development company that is constructing the Crossroads Technology Park data center campus on 600 acres in the Benchmark Road area, addressed the planning commission during its most recent meeting.
Crosby and Hirschler attorney Logan Burnette requested that if the planning commission accepts the board of supervisors’ recommendation to eliminate by-right development for data centers in the county, it also grandfathers projects with site plans submitted before Jan. 13, when the board requested the planning commission review the ordinance.
The commission voted 5-2 to recommend that the board eliminate by-right use and require an SUP, but also to consider comments made by Crosby and Burnette. Commissioners Allen Prickett of the Chancellor District and Scott Phelps of the Lee Hill District voted against the recommendation.
KETTLER’s project is on industrial property and would’ve been by-right prior to the supervisors’ vote last month.
Crosby drew support from newly-elected planning commission Chair Tim Gronau when he explained that the company has already invested more than $100 million in its project, including $2 million in the past eight months to adjust to the county’s fluid standards.
The supervisors changed their opinions on setbacks and other issues regarding the industry before voting to approve design standards without an SUP in December. Berkeley District Supervisor David Goosman, who was elected in November, then swung the board in the direction of an SUP.
Crosby said it’s starting to “feel a little bit like Groundhog Day” as he’s addressed the board and the commission on numerous occasions.
“I’ve been coming back the last several months as the policy has evolved, which is why it’s hard to believe that the standards requiring six months of public process to adopt are now being proposed for deletion in the code only after seven weeks,” Crosby said.
Crosby informed the commission that KETTLER began the process for the project in 2023 when it initiated gaining electricity for the site. He said in 2024 the company worked with the county’s economic development staff to pursue infrastructure funding, and last February, KETTLER filed its initial infrastructure plan.
Crosby said the company could’ve proceeded under the old rules allowing for by-right development last spring but chose to wait until the county adopted design standards, which it did in December before the change of direction last month.
KETTLER submitted a site plan on Jan. 12 that was compliant with the late 2025 standards.
“The next day the board initiated the text amendment to eliminate the by-right option and introduce a new SUP requirement,” Crosby noted … “Applying an SUP retroactively doesn’t just change the rules, it penalizes those who followed them. Our request is simple: If the site plan was filed before the board initiated the SUP and meets the 2025 standards, it should be grandfathered.”
The county’s planning staff said that five projects will be grandfathered, because they were pending before the 2025 design standards. KETTLER and the Fredericksburg Digital project would be the only developments impacted by grandfathering due to the most recent proposed changes.
Gronau said he supports Crosby’s efforts.
“I would probably have a little issue with a project that has gone through that many site plans of not including it into grandfathering,” Gronau said … “I’ve looked at it real hard with [Supervisor Drew Mullins] and I think you made a good-looking project out of it and gave up a lot of space. It looks like they’ve been cooperating far more than I think could be called for.”
Beyond KETTLER’s project, Commissioner Prickett said he’s exhausted by the entire SUP vs. by-right discussion. Prickett said the supervisors should’ve never sent it back to the commission because the design standards approved in December were thoroughly vetted.
Prickett said he’s concerned the county will be less marketable to developers because of the change to an SUP, and that voting on every development in industrial areas could lead to bias from county officials. The proposed change from the supervisors wouldn’t do away completely with the 2025 design standards, but they would be used as a guideline document for developers.
“This is the third time that we’ve been asked to review this and make changes,” Prickett said. “I feel that we did our due diligence originally and then went further with it the second time. This third time, I’m at the point where I am not going to go with a positive vote on this. I think it should be the responsibility of the supervisors to make that determination if we have already put this to a vote multiple times here.”
The board of supervisors will consider the planning commission’s recommendation following a public hearing at its Feb. 24 meeting.
