Goochland County approves tech overlay district after hours of resident backlash

Members of Goochland County and surrounding areas meet to learn about the environmental impacts of data centers. (Photo by Shannon Heckt/Virginia Mercury)

Goochland County, home to just over 28,000 residents and more than two hours south of Northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley,” is the latest locality to face intense community pushback over plans to lure data center development to the area.

“Not planning to grow, planning to preserve,” Board of Supervisors member Neil Spoonhower told a packed Thursday hearing of frustrated residents while defending his support for creating a technology overlay district (TOD).

The TOD stretches from Interstate 64 about five miles down Route 288 to Patterson Ave. It’s designed to attract data centers and other energy-intensive projects by offering incentives that country leaders say will bring new  tax revenue and jobs.

Most of the area is already zoned industrial, though some agricultural parcels would require additional permitting. Companies using the incentives would be subject to limits on building size, noise ordinances and setbacks from nearby homes.

After a six hour meeting, the board voted 4-1 to approve the district. More than 80 residents from Goochland and surrounding counties spoke in opposition. With data center development expanding beyond Northern Virginia, nearby localities such as Hanover and Henrico are also balancing community concerns with the economic upside. Goochland officials noted the county has spent years recovering from past financial instability.

“Our county’s financial portfolio needs to be more balanced in order to meet the needs of our community,” said board chair Tim Winfree.

Many Virginia localities already have similar overlay zones to guide where tech and manufacturing facilities can be located. Supervisor Jonathan Lyle argued Goochland is late to the game.

“If you want economic development, and technology is where development is happening, what can we do to be more prominent and visible for technology companies? So a technology overlay district was seen as a tool, not the tool, but a tool, that would help us attract more industry,” Lyle said.

Several changes were made to the original proposal, and Lyle unsuccessfully pushed for a one-year delay to address community concerns and study potential impacts. His motion failed to receive a second.

Ahead of the vote, community members held their own rally to learn more about data centers and their effects on nearby neighborhoods. The Sierra Club gave a presentation on noise, diesel generator use, and other environmental issues that left many in the audience grumbling and upset.

“They haven’t done any testing, they have absolutely no knowledge… of the results of putting something like that so close to us and so they’re not educated enough to make these kinds of decisions, and it’s really going to be detrimental to all of us. We’re all pretty much retired citizens,” said Karen Fortuna, who lives in a neighborhood bordering the new district.

Under the final rules, data centers outside the western portion of the TOD would not need additional votes and public hearings. However, energy production facilities — such as gas peaker plants or small modular reactors — would now acquire conditional use permits with full board approval.

Some residents said they felt blindsided by the proposal. Goochland resident Steve Fram said he heard about it over dinner with a neighbor. Others who recently moved to the county and now find themselves near the district fear they may have to relocate. Fortuna said she isn’t opposed to economic development, but believes the county should protect neighborhoods.

“If they want to do data centers, it’s not that we’re opposed to it, but it needs to be miles away rather than feet,” she said.

Goochland’s fight reflects a growing statewide backlash as data centers move beyond their traditional Northern Virginia cluster. In Louisa County, residents recently halted an Amazon data center proposal. The debate is increasingly tied to a broader question facing Virginia: how to meet soaring energy demand from the data centers – and who bears the cost.