Prince William Board of County Supervisors

Following hours of public debate, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors voted on July 7, 2026, to deny a Comprehensive Plan Amendment that would have paved the way for the Dulles South Innovation Center (also referred to as Dulles Cloud South or Dulles Innovation South), a data center campus proposed for the Gainesville District.

The decision comes days after the death of the Prince William Digital Gateway project, halting another industrial push in western Prince William County amid concerns over infrastructure, character, and quality of life.

Chair Deshundra Jefferson, At-large, Prince William Board of County Supervisors, advanced a directive during the June 23 Board of Supervisors meeting calling for development of a comprehensive data center decommissioning policy framework amid ongoing concerns about long-term infrastructure impacts.

The directive instructs the county executive and staff to create guidelines addressing planning, environmental protection, infrastructure removal and recycling or disposal, security, workforce impacts, and site redevelopment. It builds on prior board actions, including Resolutions 21-327 and 23-111, which initiated amendments to the zoning ordinance and the Design and Construction Standards Manual related to data centers. Staff work should draw from the 2040 Comprehensive Plan’s environmental chapter, the 2025-2028 Strategic Plan, and the Community Energy and Sustainability Master Plan, with recommendations on timelines, fiscal impacts, and other considerations for board review. The county attorney’s office will examine legal issues.

“The proposed zoning text amendment simply will restrict any further by-right development of data centers in Prince William County,” InsideNoVa reported. “That means any and all new data center projects will have to be approved or disapproved by the board.”

“As I said last year when I gave my directive to begin retiring the Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District, the overlay has created a situation where data center projects are authorized to build by right, bypassing review by the county’s Planning Department, Planning Commission, and even the Board of Supervisors,” Occoquan District Supervisor Kenny Boddye told InsideNoVa.