Loudoun Votes: Democrat Board Ends Open By-Right Data Centers — After 9–0 Use Expansion and 5–4 Grandfathering

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — On March 18, 2025, Loudoun’s Democrat-majority Board of Supervisors ended the era of open-ended by-right data-center expansion that the same board’s zoning choices had enabled — but only after a night of recorded votes that still grandfathered tens of millions of square feet and added data center as a use on older industrial rezonings.

Attachment C notes taken by Theresa Ghiorzi during the board’s business meeting and public hearing, paired with the county’s Granicus recording, walk through the motions in order. Supervisors spent hours on Phase 1 zoning staff’s presentation, 500-foot setback mechanics, and how many administrative site plans would sail through if grandfathered.

Supervisor Juli Briskman pressed an alternative motion to strip grandfathering of administrative applications entirely. Her argument, captured in the notes, was that roughly 22 administrative by-right applications amounted to approving roughly 61 million square feet of additional data-center space. That motion to remove administrative grandfathering failed 5–4 — a Democrat-board split that left the industry’s administrative pipeline intact.

Separately, a motion to let lots rezoned between 1972 and 1993 add data center as a permitted use passed 9–0. That unanimous vote widened, rather than narrowed, where data centers can go on older industrial parcels even as the board claimed to be closing the by-right door. A motion to push the grandfathering cutoff from February 12 to March 18 failed 7–2.

Approving the grandfathering package itself passed 5–4. On the main motion that framed the night’s Phase 1 outcome, the board voted 7–2 to pass. Briskman’s closing comments in the notes put the scale in plain English: about 41 million square feet already in the grandfathering conversation, with potentially another 61 million tied to the administrative track the board refused to kill.

Those tallies matter because Loudoun’s data-center boom was not forced on the county by Richmond alone. A Democrat-majority Board of Supervisors spent years treating hyperscale campuses as economic development, collecting hundreds of millions in tax revenue, and watching Dominion and PJM chase the load with new 230 kV and 500 kV corridors. March 18 was the same board applying the brakes with one hand while grandfathering and backfilling older parcels with the other.

Staff and supervisors debated whether vacant houses count as residential receptors for setbacks, how Urban Employment place types interact with residential allowances, and whether applicants who reshuffle building footprints to meet a 500-foot buffer must return for a special exception. Those details decide which neighborhoods still get a wall of generators and cooling yards next door even after “by-right” is declared over.

Republican supervisors on the dais, including Caleb Kershner, are recorded opposing the most aggressive anti-grandfathering motions and warning that yanking administrative applications after applicants spent money would be an egregious turn. Democrat colleagues who wanted a harder stop could not assemble five votes to erase the administrative grandfathering Briskman targeted.

For residents fighting Aspen–Golden, Golden–Mars, Wishing Star, MARL, and Valley Link, March 18 is not a clean ending. It is a documented Democrat-board compromise: end prospective by-right entitlement, keep a large grandfathered stack, and unanimously reopen older 1972–1993 rezonings to data-center use. The megawatts already in Loudoun’s pipeline, and the transmission cases already at the SCC, were baked by the approvals that came before that 7–2 main motion.

Ghiorzi’s notes are not a substitute for the official minutes, but they preserve the order of motions and the 9–0, 7–2, 5–4, and 5–4 outcomes residents can verify against the Granicus player. In a county Democrats marketed as Data Center Alley, the March 18 record shows who still voted to protect tens of millions of square feet after telling the public the open spigot was closed.

Email the Board of Supervisors at:
Phyllis J. Randall (Chair, At-Large) – Phyllis.Randall@loudoun.gov,
Michael R. Turner (Vice Chair, Ashburn District) – Mike.Turner@loudoun.gov,
Juli E. Briskman (Algonkian District) – Juli.Briskman@loudoun.gov,
Sylvia R. Glass (Broad Run District) – Sylvia.Glass@loudoun.gov,
Caleb Kershner (Catoctin District) – caleb.kershner@loudoun.gov,
Matthew F. Letourneau (Dulles District) – Matt.Letourneau@loudoun.gov,
Kristen C. Umstattd (Leesburg District) – Kristen.Umstattd@loudoun.gov,
Laura A. TeKrony (Little River District) – Laura.TeKrony@loudoun.gov,
Koran Saines (Sterling District) – Koran.Saines@loudoun.gov

Email the Loudoun County School Board:
April Chandler, april.chandler@lcps.org,
Anne Donohue, anne.donohue@lcps.org,
Deana Griffiths, deana.griffiths@lcps.org,
Ross Svenson, ross.stevenson@lcps.org,
Kari LaBell, kari.labell@lcps.org,
Jon Pepper, jonathon.pepper@lcps.org,
Lauren Shernoff, lauren.shernoff@lcps.org,
Sumera Rashid, sumera.rashid@lcps.org,
Amy Riccardi, amy.riccardi@lcps.org,