Loudoun tables bill to strip approvals from 15 data center projects

Loudoun County supervisors tabled a proposal Tuesday without a vote that would have stripped by-right zoning approvals from 15 data center projects, Bisnow reported.

The projects total roughly 10.5 million square feet across 30 buildings, ranging from just over 100,000 square feet to more than 4 million square feet. Bisnow identified Digital Realty’s Digital Dulles Phase 3 as the largest of the 15.

What the board tabled was a grandfather clause. Loudoun effectively ended by-right zoning for new data centers in March 2025, requiring even industrial-zone projects to win a special exception from the Board of Supervisors, according to Bisnow. Projects already in the approval pipeline kept the older path, and those 15 legacy projects are the ones advancing without the new review.

Supervisors also tabled a second measure from the same two lawmakers, framed as a compromise, that would have required an audit of the legacy projects.

Board Vice Chair Mike Turner, who voted against the original 2025 resolution, opposed the revocation. "I don't support changing grandfathering. To me, it's just unethical," Turner said at Tuesday's meeting. "We set the rules. Businesses made decisions based on those rules. We live by the rules."

Loudoun is the world's largest data center hub, with more than 250 facilities operating and more than 120 in the development pipeline, according to Bisnow, and much of the world's internet traffic passes through its eastern edge.

This publication has argued that entitlement, not power or land, is the binding constraint for Mid-Atlantic data center sponsors and their lenders. The 15 legacy projects sit in the largest hub with approvals already in hand, and a bill to revoke those approvals still reached the board.