The newly-adopted Albemarle Comprehensive Plan (AC44) went into effect Jan. 1, 2026, and the county’s implementation of AC44 will include drafting a new zoning ordinance, updating Development Area neighborhood master plans and other actions outlined in the final plan. PEC is focused on promoting the funding of Albemarle’s Acquisition of Conservation Easements program and advocating for the county’s Biodiversity Action Plan update and new Rural Area Land Use Plan.
PEC is monitoring two transmission line proposals driven by out-of-control data center growth and engaging communities in their approval processes. The projects include two 230 kilovolt rebuilds within existing right-of-ways: one extending from Dooms in Augusta County to Charlottesville, and the other extending from Charlottesville to the Gordonsville substation in northeast Albemarle County. Our concerns include visual impacts to historic and scenic resources and construction impacts to sensitive natural resources.
Just south of the county border, PEC engaged with community partners to fight the proposed second Tenaska gas plant. A Harvard University research lab found that the new plant will exacerbate the health and environmental impacts of the existing Tenaska gas plant, and will expose nearly 4 million people in Fluvanna, Albemarle and central Virginia to increased air pollution. Unfortunately, the Fluvanna Board of Supervisors approved the special use permit.
Clarke
In March, Clarke County staff published the first draft of the new Rural Lands Plan on the county’s website. PEC is reviewing the draft text and will comment as needed. We will also attend two public input sessions: April 6 at the Boyce Fire Hall and April 9 at the Bluemont Fire and Rescue Social Hall.
During its January meeting, the Board of Supervisors heard updates on water levels. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has elevated the county’s Drought Watch status to a Drought Warning after Clarke ended 2025 with a 9.5 inch annual rainfall deficit. Nine of the county’s 13 drought elevation regions have experienced less than 60% of normal precipitation since Oct. 1, 2025.
State Route 7 safety improvements continue to be a key focus for the Board of Supervisors, highlighted by a fatal crash on Feb. 2, 2026 at the intersection of Blue Ridge Mountain Road and Route 7 on the Clarke and Loudoun county line.
Culpeper
Strata Energy has applied for a conditional use permit for a large, utility-scale solar facility, called Maroon Solar, on Raccoon Ford Road in southern Culpeper. This is Strata’s fourth such application for this property after the first three failed. While PEC remains a supporter of solar, we have several concerns about the site of this project — which features both shallow rock and deep, heavy clays — and about Strata Energy, which has a history of erosion problems on their construction sites. Although the Planning Commission recommended denial of the project in March, Strata will bring its proposal to the Board of Supervisors April 7.
The Town and County of Culpeper have received site plans for several approved data centers, including the Culpeper Technology Campus and Copper Ridge — both owned by STACK Infrastructure — as well as Edgecore, Keyser Farm, and a new by-right data center adjacent to the existing Equinix data centers. Approval of these plans is administrative and does not require a public hearing. Construction for some of the projects is likely to begin later this year.
Fauquier
Though PEC and many others attempted to convince the Commonwealth Transportation Board that a proposed bridge replacement at Broad Run on Interstate 66, directly in front of the historic Chapman-Beverley Mill, is both unnecessarily large and far too expensive, the project will proceed and is advertised for bid in fall 2026. Virginia Department of Transportation intends to maintain existing traffic flows during construction by adding significant width to that section of I-66. No other bridge project in its portfolio is similarly oversized.
The proposed Amazon data center project in Warrenton is back in the news. The Warrenton Board of Zoning Appeals deferred its decision regarding the applicant’s vested rights until a separate but related case is heard by the Circuit Court. Briefs are being filed and the court will hear oral arguments in that case June 15. It appears the applicant is prepared to appeal the Board of Zoning Appeals decision all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court if necessary.
Remington Tech Park data center developers submitted a rezoning request to add gas turbines for primary power production to their existing approved data center permits — the first request of its kind in Fauquier from a data center developer to produce its own power. The Planning Commission recommended denial of the application in a 3-2 vote, a decision PEC supports because of the power plant’s potential air and noise emissions. The application goes to the Board of Supervisors in April.
Gigaland developers have returned with the anticipated scaled-down version of their data center design. Public sentiment toward this project is poor after a hard-fought battle by the applicant during the first application process. The new application is under review with Community Development and could be presented to the Planning Commission in April. PEC continues to monitor the status of the application and will weigh in at the appropriate time.
The Town of Remington is making progress on its comprehensive plan update. A committee of community and regional leaders, residents, and PEC staff is in the process of collecting data and will soon be ready to take more extensive community input.
Greene
Greene County is moving forward with construction of its water supply project. The construction includes a raw water main pipe that will bring water from the Rapidan River to a new reservoir and a raw water intake and pump station that will be placed in the Rapidan riverbed to collect water during times of high water. As the Virginia Piedmont continues to experience extended periods of drought, water supply infrastructure is a priority for the county and PEC.
Both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors have undertaken multiple work sessions — including joint sessions — to update regulations for agritourism facilities, including farm wineries, breweries, distilleries and event venues. PEC’s primary concerns about these types of land uses are the impacts from noise/sound, traffic, size of buildings and structures, depletion of groundwater and frequency of events. PEC has provided comments advocating for rural area protections and best practices for regulation of such facilities.
The Central Virginia Partnership for Economic Development has hired a consultant to complete a strategic plan to guide economic development along the U.S. Route 29 corridor extending from Fauquier County through Greene County to the City of Charlottesville. According to the partnership, “Central Virginia is poised to become a nationally recognized Innovation Corridor for biotech, digital technologies and national security.” The strategic roadmap will identify the corridor’s competitive advantages in biotech and digital technologies (data science, AI, autonomy, advanced materials, cybersecurity, etc.) with commercial and national security applications.
Loudoun
PEC continues to monitor the many data center applications in Loudoun’s pipeline, including the ongoing conversion of “flex industrial space” and encroachment on residential areas. In particular, PEC has organized a response to the Leesburg Gateway data center proposal, which was deferred from its January public hearing date with no rescheduled date yet.
In December, PEC encouraged public comment for the Golden-to-Mars transmission line case, and in February, PEC submitted closing arguments on the case. No ruling has been made yet, but in total, about 1,400 written comments were submitted on this case and almost 300 public witnesses spoke!
PEC has also provided comments for a county-wide Electrical Infrastructure Plan to proactively manage transmission siting. After the Board of Supervisors adopted best practice guidelines in February, Phase 2 focuses on long-term planning and identifying potential routes as data centers increase the need for more power via new high-voltage transmission corridors.
PEC has worked with partners to create a factsheet highlighting the significant cost, timing and impact issues of the proposed U.S. Route 15 bypass around Lucketts. The Board of Supervisors had planned to vote on two possible bypass routes this quarter, but we are advocating a more timely, less costly solution that preserves the area’s rural character and provides corridor traffic calming measures like those found along U.S. Route 50 and state Route 9.
The Board of Supervisors’ Transportation and Land Use Committee’s year-long stakeholder process on the Western Loudoun Uses and Standards zoning ordinance amendment came to a close, and the committee directed staff to draft new zoning language. Along the way, PEC submitted detailed comments.
Stunningly, despite input from the public, PEC and many partners, as well as the county staff’s excellent motions, the committee voted to grant ABC-licensed businesses unlimited, unrestricted, by-right private parties, while maintaining only 25-foot setbacks for outdoor party spaces at ABC businesses and overnight stay venues alike.
For the Mountainside Overlay District, the same committee recommended reducing the protective buffer for ridge features and springs to 100 feet (from 300 feet) and allowing permit-free driveway repairs and construction of structures up to 600 square feet (larger than a two car garage).
The Transportation and Land Use Committee recommendations will go to the full Board of Supervisors for final votes at the board’s May and June meetings. PEC staff will keep you informed, and we encourage any residents concerned about their quality of life in western Loudoun to attend. Another good way to make your voice heard is to add a public comments on the official project page.
Madison
Work continues on the proposed Rapidan River-Clark Mountain Rural Historic District. PEC’s consultant, the Fairfield Foundation, has completed the full inventory of resources within the proposed district and is finalizing the narrative portion of the application for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. PEC hosted a meeting in February to update the community and remains hopeful the application will be approved in 2026. The historic district, which includes over 40,000 acres of mostly intact agricultural landscape in Madison, Culpeper and Orange counties, would be one of the largest rural historic districts in Virginia.
Orange
In December, the Board of Supervisors approved a Technology Zoning District that allows practically any parcel to be rezoned for data centers. The new ordinance does include some provisions intended to avoid or mitigate impacts of data center development, and it will ensure a public input process for future proposals. However, the maximum-flexibility approach approved by the board does not include any cap on acreage or on how many parcels countywide could be rezoned for data centers.
In a separate action that PEC fully supports, the board will soon consider removing data centers as a by-right use in the Industrial Zoning District, which would ensure that any future Orange County data center application would be required to seek a rezoning to Technology and a special use permit. No data centers are currently proposed in Orange County; PEC will closely monitor land use applications and alert the public should a data center be proposed.
The Town of Orange amended its zoning ordinance in February, removing data centers as a by-right use and instead requiring a special use permit. The action will ensure a public input process for any data center application. This was a much-needed change, but PEC believes that hyperscale data centers should not be allowed anywhere in the town at all. Towns are meant to be pedestrian-oriented, human-scaled places for people to live, work and play. They are land-constrained, and the limited space should be used for housing, retail and public places. In the current data center market, any proposal would likely be over 80 feet tall, over 100,000 square feet and accompanied by new 230-kilovolt transmission lines and associated substations, none of which is conducive to a town environment. The Town will soon be considering updates to the definition of “data center” in the zoning ordinance, and PEC is urging changes that would require a data center applicant to seek a separate special use permit for any planned on-site power plant.
Last year, regional grid operator PJM announced a slate of new gas power plant proposals across the state, including one in Orange County. In January 2026, after a period of uncertainty when almost no information was publicly available, even in response to multiple Virginia Freedom of Information Act requests by PEC, PJM withdrew the proposed 1.2 gigawatt gas power plant from consideration. It was one of 51 projects PJM has attempted to fast-track to meet energy demands driven by data centers.
Rappahannock
In January, First Energy held an open house in Sperryville for the Page-Sperrville 138 kilovolt transmission line upgrade. This is a wreck-and-rebuild of the existing 40-year-old transmission line between Luray and Sperryville. PEC is not opposed to the project since the transmission line and substation equipment are nearing the end of their service life; however, we are concerned about the potential viewshed impacts for the Sperryville Historic District and Shenandoah National Park. First Energy plans to submit this project to the State Corporation Commission in summer 2026.
In March, the Board of Supervisors approved an amendment to the code of ordinance that requires all new and expanding substations to obtain a special exception from the county. PEC strongly supported this amendment.
State
PEC is an intervenor in the Dominion Energy net metering case with the State Corporation Commission, in which Dominion has petitioned the SCC to slash the credit rate for small-scale solar owners. To start the SCC hearing, there were over 1,200 public written comments and 50 individual public testimonies in favor of retaining current rates. The SCC decision will be announced by May 1, 2026.
