This text was taken from an email alert sent out on August 24, 2026. Sign up for email alerts →
Dear Supporter,
Like the rest of our region, Orange County is currently facing several potentially transformational changes at once. Read on to learn what you can do right now to support a pause-to-plan on data center applications and respond to the Joshua Falls-Yeat transmission line.
But first, a note on transparency: An informed public, collaboration and partnership, and robust public participation in local decision making is central to The Piedmont Environmental Council’s work, and our collective quality of life. We aim to equip communities with the tools and information they need to make informed decisions.
PEC has taken Orange County to court over a deficient Freedom of Information Act response relating to the Wilderness Crossing proposal. We have urged the Town of Orange to adopt a policy banning data center-related NDAs. And we’ve energized concerned residents to submit enough comments to force DEQ to hold a local hearing on PFAS-contaminated biosolids. PEC is proud to work alongside communities to keep public health, good planning, and the environment front and center in local land use decisions.
Our action alerts are posted on our website, as are our latest press releases and maps — including our frequently-updated data center map and transmission line map. Anyone interested in staying up to date in Orange can sign up for updates here. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn for more frequent updates.
Tell Orange County: Pause to Plan
For years, PEC has highlighted and called out the data center industry for its harmful impacts on our communities.
Unfortunately, despite many important wins along the way, Virginia has yet to act on one of our principal calls, a Pause to Plan: pause new data center development and enact a plan that prioritizes transparency and public input, state oversight of cumulative impacts, and protection of Virginians.
Therefore, we urge Orange County to issue a temporary pause on consideration of any new data center application until the state has a plan in place — before any data center application is filed in the county.
PEC is not opposed to technology or economic growth. But the current pace of data center development has outrun every system meant to manage it: the grid, the ratemaking process, local planning and state policy.
A pause on new applications in Orange County would:
- Allow time for legislators to develop a plan to protect Virginians from increased electric bills, impacts of transmission lines, degradation of air quality, threats to water supply, and industrialization of neighborhoods that bring noise, public health and quality of life impacts.
- Allow elected officials and residents to understand the combined effects of data centers and the generation, transmission, water, and infrastructure needed to serve them.
- Provide time to strengthen the county guidelines including:
- the Technology District ordinance, which PEC voiced opposition to in 2025 because it allows applications for rezoning data center development of unlimited size anywhere in the county, albeit with a special use permit
- the comprehensive plan to protect air quality, agriculture, and residents from immediate and cumulative impacts.
- Prevent the county from accidentally locking itself into a situation that necessitates more power lines or gas pipelines (that they have little to no control over) by approving a data center that requires them.
Public Hearing Aug. 25: Strengthen the Comprehensive Plan Against Valley Link
In recent months PEC’s advocacy has resulted in:
- Orange County Board of Supervisors removing data centers as a by-right use from the Industrial Zoning District
- Orange Town Council updating its outdated zoning ordinance definition of “data center”
- Orange Town Council removing data centers as a by-right use (we are still urging them to ban hyperscale data centers in Town outright as they are not conducive to a town environment)
Next up: Tuesday, August 25, the Orange County Board of Supervisors will be voting on a comprehensive plan amendment recommended by the Planning Commission, in response to the proposed 115-mile long Joshua Falls-Yeat transmission line, which affirms that Orange County does not want greenfield transmission lines.
Why this matters: This would be an incremental, significant, step ahead of Valley Link’s Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) filing next month. The SCC, the agency that regulates new transmission projects in the state, will take a locality’s comprehensive plan into consideration when reviewing transmission cases and determining the optimal route for the line and necessary mitigation.
Though not a guarantee that an area prioritized by the comprehensive plan won’t be impacted by transmission lines, having the locality’s priorities clearly spelled out in the comprehensive plan can help steer new transmission growth away from sensitive areas, such as farms, homes and historic landmarks, and encourage mitigation of impacts.
Culpeper County is in the process of amending its comprehensive plan accordingly and Lousia County has already done so.
Board of Supervisors Public Hearing
Tuesday, August 25 @ 4 p.m.
11282 Government Center Drive, Orange, Va
Ask the Supervisors to approve the draft changes to the comprehensive plan, but not before removing references to on-site power generation. With the currently overburdened electric grid, a new data center won’t be coming online without on-site power generation.
For the foreseeable future, this means a gas power plant will accompany a data center. The gas pipelines that come with gas power plants have many of the same environmental and land use impacts as transmission lines including fragmented farmland, cleared rights-of-way, eminent domain, etc.
Email or call your supervisor and let them know that you support their efforts to strengthen the comprehensive plan.
I hope to see you at Tuesday’s public hearing — I’ll also be paying attention to what’s happening on Agricultural Zoning District changes, as the county considers how to prevent farmland loss.
Feel free to email or call me at the information below. I’m available if you have any questions or comments.
Thank you,
Don McCown
Senior Land Use Field Representative, Orange & Madison counties
[email protected] | (434) 977-2033 x7047
P.S. Interested in hearing more about data centers? Join PEC Saturday, August 29 in Culpeper, Va for a conversation about data centers in Virginia and in Culpeper with my colleague Sarah Parmelee. She’ll speak about their land use, water supply, air quality and energy impacts at 11 a.m.
