Send a letter voicing your support and/or attend the Planning Commission meeting on Aug. 13
This text was taken from an email alert sent out on August 6 2025. Sign up for email alerts →
Dear Supporter,
On Wednesday, Aug. 13, the Culpeper County Planning Commission will vote on a zoning text amendment that would require a conditional use permit for data centers in Culpeper, a much-needed change.
The current zoning in Culpeper allows data centers to be developed on existing industrial land without public input or approval from the Board of Supervisors. Last year, Clevenger’s Corner considered adding data centers to its development, and we’ve already seen another developer attempt to do the same near Eastern View High School. Fortunately, neither data center project moved forward, but Culpeper’s lenient zoning laws still leave the county vulnerable to more of this type of unchecked development.
Requiring a conditional use permit for new data center applications will allow the Board to:
- Review all proposals with the benefit of public input
- Ask for additional mitigation and information about projects during review
- Turn down projects that are not in the best interest of Culpeper County
Let the Planning Commission Know You Support this Change!
It’s important to let the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors know that you support more regulation of data centers in Culpeper!
We encourage you to write to the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisorsto voice your support and come to the Aug. 13 meeting, if you are able. We hope that this amendment will be passed quickly before any new data center developers try to take advantage of Culpeper’s lenient zoning laws.
Unfortunately, the proposed changes will not apply to any of the already-approved data center projects within the Culpeper Tech Zone. The Marvell data center campus in Stevensburg will also be exempt because it is already under construction. We’re disappointed that data center projects like Cielo (owned by Edgecore), Red Ace XI and CloudHQ, which are still a long way from developing, will not be required to obtain conditional use permits, especially given the impacts these facilities may have on Culpeper’s roads and water supply. However, it’s still critical for the county to do what it can to control data center growth outside of the Tech Zone.
Reigning in Data Centers
Unchecked data center growth has already led to new transmission lines throughout Virginia’s rural landscape; delayed retirement of polluting fossil fuel power plants; and utility companies like Dominion Energy to initiate massive increases in residents’ electricity bills.
Because data center developers can pay more for land than most other types of development, encouraging data center growth in a community can have a snowball effect in which all other land uses – farming, commercial, even other industrial developments – are pushed out in favor of data centers. We’ve seen this in Loudoun County, where failure to regulate data center growth has made the county overly reliant on this single industry for tax revenue to subsidize its explosive residential growth. Now, Loudoun County is actually proposing to cut taxes for data centers to reduce their dependence on the mercurial Tech Industry. Previously, Loudoun experienced a $60 million budget shortfall due to the unpredictability of data center tax revenue. With a smaller population and revenue stream, this risk is even greater for a rural county like Culpeper..
Please take a moment to send a letter in support of the proposed change to control data center growth. After the Planning Commission votes, we expect the Board of Supervisors to vote on the proposed change in September.
Another opportunity to weigh in! This summer, the State Corporation Commission (SCC) is reviewing Dominion’s rates, terms and conditions for generation and transmission infrastructure. This rate case is the first opportunity to address the electricity rate structure for the largest concentration of data centers in the world.
⚠️ Be sure to send in your comments to the SCC and tell them to protect ratepayers from Big Tech’s skyrocketing energy bill. Read our email alert from earlier this week and use our sample letter to submit your comments by Tuesday, Aug. 26.
Thank you for your engagement on these important issues that affect the safety, health, and quality of life of Culpeper County residents.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Sarah Parmelee
Land Use Field Representative
Culpeper County
[email protected]
(540) 347-2334 ext. 7045
