Just months after Prince William County lost out on a $100B data center project, its Board of Supervisors is placing critical restrictions on the county’s future digital infrastructure pipeline.
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In a hearing lasting more than three hours, the board on Tuesday unanimously approved a zoning text amendment that largely eliminates by right data center development. Supervisors voted to drastically reduce the size of an overlay district that since 2016 has allowed developers to build data centers without going through extra approvals.
The ZTA proposed to reduce the size of the overlay from 9,698 acres to 3,654 acres, cutting the land available for by right development by about 62%, according to a Planning Commission report earlier this month. The change means developers in the approximately 6,000 newly excluded acres would have to secure a special use permit to build a data center project going forward.
Data center development in the revised overlay district will be limited to properties that meet certain criteria intended to identify properties with prior approvals or existing development rights. The overlay was previously reduced in 2019, although it isn’t clear by how much.
The 8-0 vote came after a lengthy debate over the scope of a grace period for developers to file data center applications before the new overlay district takes effect. The supervisors voted 5-3 against a separate motion to change that period from 90 days to zero.
“We've got varied perspectives across the community as it relates to what we're doing. But the one thing that everyone is unified on is we must get this done,” Brentsville District Supervisor Tom Gordy said before the vote. “We need to end by right development of data centers in Prince William County.”
Board of Supervisors Chair at large Deshundra Jefferson emphasized that she wanted the board to make a decision immediately.
“It doesn’t mean there will never be another data center application ever again,” she said. “I'm not a fan of the 90 days, but it is the compromise, and it feels like this is where we've been able to get a majority of people, and I want this to be done.”
Residents and elected officials across the U.S. are pushing back against data center development, leading to a flurry of new restrictions.
Prince William County sits next to Loudoun County, the data center capital of the world, which eliminated by right data center development in March 2025. Last week, Loudoun moved to pause data center applications for up to 12 months so that it could complete Phase 2 of its data center standard amendments. Loudoun is also considering doing away with a legacy exemption that lets data center applications filed before March 2025 keep their by right status.
Prince William County has 36 operational data centers and 40 in the development pipeline, including 11 under construction, according to US Data Center Map. Reported and operational power usage from data centers in the county totals 4.5 gigawatts.
In July, Blackstone’s QTS abandoned its $100B Digital Gateway data center project, which was planned to span 2,100 acres in Prince William County, after dropping its legal effort to reinstate necessary rezoning approvals.
Just days later, Prince William's board stopped another massive data center plan from taking shape, voting against a land use designation for a proposed 1,940-acre data center dubbed Dulles South Innovation Center.
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