Politicians are scrambling nationally to address growing public concern over data centers, and in Northern Virginia, where many local elected leaders will be on the ballot in 2027, the issue is proving a delicate balancing act.
Fairfax County residents expect “fair rules of engagement” when it comes to addressing the impacts of data centers, Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff McKay said at the 11th annual Northern Virginia Regional Elected Leaders Summit, held on Wednesday (Aug. 26) in Arlington.
“We need to make sure our regulations have adapted,” said McKay, who leads the most populous jurisdiction in Virginia.
At the same time, he noted the irony that most of those who arrive to testify against data centers locally usually have cellphones in their hands.
Cellphones, like most modern technology, only work with data centers providing the infrastructure to power them, McKay said.
“We have to acknowledge they are needed,” McKay said.
While data centers aren’t as big a presence in Fairfax County as they are in neighboring Loudoun, more development proposals have emerged in recent years, including potential additions in Tysons, Chantilly and the Herndon area. With that increase has come more controversy.
Over the past couple of years, a battle has emerged over plans by Starwood Capital Group to redevelop the 34-acre Plaza 500 site at 6299 Edsall Road in Lincolnia with two data center buildings.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors adopted stricter zoning rules for data centers in 2024, including restrictions on their proximity to residential neighborhoods, but the updates didn’t apply to projects already under review, like Plaza 500.
Earlier this month, Mason District Supervisor Andres Jimenez joined others in asking the Fairfax County Planning Commission to reject Dominion Energy’s proposal for a substation that would provide energy to the planned data center facilities.
With the project sitting near the border between the localities, Alexandria City leaders have asked Fairfax officials to do what they can to make it more difficult for the substation for the data center to move forward.
“We felt it was critical to weigh in,” Mayor Alyia Gaskins said at the Aug. 25 forum, which attracted several hundred business leaders.
While the final decision belongs to Fairfax officials, data centers “still have regional impacts — they don’t stop at a city line or county line,” Gaskins said.
“We’re going to feel the impacts” of the Edsall Road proposal, she said, explaining why the city’s leadership has voiced its opposition to Fairfax officials.
Also on the dais at the forum was Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chairman Phyllis Randall. Her jurisdiction contains the largest conglomeration of data centers anywhere in the world.
The Loudoun government has benefited financially from massive influxes of data center revenue, allowing the county to maintain the lowest tax rate across the region. But it has come at a quality-of-life cost that county’s leaders are increasingly work to address.
“If we could rewind the clock, we would do a lot of things differently,” Randall said, acknowledging that “once the horse is out of the barn, it’s hard to get the horse back.”
Next-generation data centers may require a significantly smaller physical footprint, making them increasingly viable in more urban areas like Arlington and Alexandria and a bigger portion of Fairfax County.
Randall urged localities across Virginia, urban and rural, to “look at Loudoun County as a cautionary tale” and be prepared from a planning and zoning standpoint.
Done right, “you can get the revenue and not have all the negative consequences,” she said.
Data centers could emerge as a key issue in 2027 local elections across Northern Virginia. All 10 Fairfax County Board of Supervisors seats will be on the ballot, as will offices in Alexandria, Loudoun and Prince William County.
In Loudoun, Randall already has picked up a challenger from within the Democratic ranks, with Loudoun Supervisor Juli Briskman pledging to run on a platform to stop the proliferation of data centers in the county.
At the Aug. 26 forum, Randall attempted to blunt that line of attack, saying she was focused on putting guardrails on the industry before it became politically fashionable to do so.
Randall said Virginia localities don’t have the statutory authority to enact a moratorium or outright ban of future data centers. But local governments can use their land-use powers to get the best deal possible, she said.
In Arlington, where at least one County Board seat is on the ballot each November, data centers have not emerged as a political flashpoint. But even urbanized communities like Arlington will feel increased, if indirect, impacts.
“We are all connected,” Arlington County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti said.
“The next 10 years look very different for Northern Virginia [in terms of impacts] than the last 20 years,” he said.
The annual Elected Leaders Summit, now in its 11th year, is cosponsored by the Arlington and Northern Virginia chambers of commerce. Cosponsors included the Alexandria and Loudoun chambers of commerce, Northern Virginia Regional Commission and Regional Elected Leaders Initiative.
