Stafford

Stafford County supervisors on Sept. 1 directed staff toward letters asking Gov. Abigail Spanberger for a special legislative session on data-center rules — and, if comprehensive legislation cannot pass quickly, a temporary pause on new large-scale approvals — then expanded the ask to the federal administration.

The board did not vote that night to approve or deny any campus. Supervisors said their own ordinance — which Chairman Deuntay T. Diggs, George Washington District, called the strictest in Virginia and Supervisor Crystal L. Vanuch, Rock Hill District, said includes among the largest setbacks in the country — still cannot stop river withdrawals, well impacts, or high-load power costs that land on ratepayers.


Fredericksburg

Fredericksburg City Council treated the Technology Overlay District as a political promise, not just a zoning map, when it voted 7-0 after midnight to keep a data center off the Hylton tract.

The Aug. 25-26 votes denied a rezoning and a height permit for 1500 Gateway along Interstate 95, between Plank Road and Cowan Boulevard. Council did not say the overlay text itself banned the site. Members who passed the TOD in 2025, and one who was not on the dais then, said they had already told residents where data centers would go.


Stafford

The Stafford County Planning Commission recommended approval of the Accokeek Center data center campus in Falmouth after a packed hearing that began Aug. 26 and ran past midnight into Aug. 27.

On separate 4-3 votes, the commission recommended that the Board of Supervisors approve a rezoning with proffers, and a conditional use permit for the substation.


Spotsylvania

The family that has run Belvedere Plantation for nearly six decades went to Facebook this week to speak for itself.

The message was meant to be clear. The Fall Harvest Festival still opens Sept. 12. Field trips, the corn maze, and the pumpkin patch are not canceled. Nothing about this season changes. The Fulks family said it wanted customers to hear that from them, not from the rumor mill.


Fredericksburg

After a hearing that ran past midnight, members kept data centers inside the Technology Overlay District — and left a $23.4 million tax projection on the table.

City Council voted 7–0 early Wednesday to deny a rezoning that would have put two data center buildings on the Hylton tract along Interstate 95, then voted 7–0 again to deny a special use permit that would have raised those buildings from 50 feet to 75 feet.


Virginia

“Prince William County Occoquan District Supervisor Kenny Boddye on Friday called on state leaders to grant local governments explicit authority to defer decisions on high-resource-demand industrial projects such as data centers while officials study water, power and air-quality impacts,” according to a press release from the Occoquan District.

Boddye’s request, which he said he will seek to add to the county’s legislative agenda, comes after Spotsylvania County supervisors voted 4-2 to urge Gov. Abigail Spanberger to enact a statewide data center moratorium so the Commonwealth can study the industry’s future, Fredericksburg Free Press reported.


Virginia

Virginia’s State Corporation Commission has directed Dominion Energy to return this fall with proposed changes that could shift more transmission infrastructure costs to data centers and other large electricity users, The Center Square reported. The July 31 final order gives the company 90 days to file amendments to its line-extension policy and 120 days to update regulators on a broader approach for assigning those costs when large-load customers drive the need for new grid infrastructure.

The directives were issued as part of Dominion’s annual Rider T1 transmission cost recovery case, with approved rates set to take effect Sept. 1. First-year Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger called the decision a victory for ratepayers, saying it ensures data centers pay the full cost of the transmission infrastructure their developments require—an issue of particular local importance given Northern Virginia’s dense concentration of data centers and the potential impact on residential electric bills.


Virginia

Two state senators are asking Gov. Abigail Spanberger to call a special session of the General Assembly after a newly released state report found groundwater supplies in eastern Virginia may not support major new withdrawals under current regulations, The Center Square reported. Sens. Richard Stuart, R-King George, and Russet Perry, D-Loudoun, said the Department of Environmental Quality study shows “virtually no capacity” in the Coastal Plain aquifer for large new uses such as data centers and was released only after the 2026 session had adjourned.

The bipartisan letter notes ongoing strain already appearing in western Loudoun and northern Fauquier counties and urges lawmakers to act on the report’s recommendations for stronger permitting rules, improved monitoring, and tying local development more closely to groundwater availability rather than waiting until the 2027 session.


Fredericksburg

– Info from Sue Nelson Sargeant

Residents, activists, and local officials gathered Tuesday, July 21, for Community Forum #1 on data centers in the Fredericksburg area. The event, titled “Are We the New DATA CENTER Alley?”, featured a video screening, discussion, and Q&A.


Stafford

Stafford County officials today described the absence of the county’s Cultural Resource Specialist from a July 7 Board of Supervisors hearing on the Potomac Creek Campus data center applications as consistent with standard practice.

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