Last week, Henrico County’s Board of Supervisors held a joint meeting with the planning commission to discuss setting regulatory standards for data center developments that would limit their growth within the county.
The proposed zoning regulations would incentivize the development of data centers in a specific area of Henrico, set regulatory building and environmental standards for each development and give the board of supervisors ample opportunity to review projects outside the designated zone.
Henrico hosts around 40 data centers of varying sizes, according to planning department staff. Larger facilities run by companies like Meta, QTS and Bank of America are located primarily in the White Oak Technology Park.
Henrico’s Planning Commission recommended the proposed zoning ordinance be approved during the joint May 15 meeting. Supervisors have deferred their own vote until the June 10 board meeting to consider additional amendments.
Three Chopt Supervisor Misty Roundtree said county supervisors directed planning staff to examine the county’s zoning in response to the community's concern over the industry’s impact on neighboring homes and the environment.
Planning department staff delivered their full report on May 1 and presented their findings during the May 15 hearing at Highland Springs High School.
“The reason all of this is happening started with a concern that we had as a board about where the direction of data centers in Henrico County was going,” Roundtree said on May 15.
The county’s report acknowledges that data centers have provided “significant revenues” for Henrico.
Tax revenue from the growing data center industry was used to establish local resources like its Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and supervisors recently approved a tax increase on computer equipment associated with data centers, which will further increase county revenue.
However, Henrico officials anticipate that the demand for data services will grow in areas outside of White Oak Technology Park and Technology Boulevard — and expressed concern about the industry’s unrestricted reign.
Planning director Joe Emerson estimated 80%–90% of that 2,278-acre area has already been developed, with “plans for development and significant financial investments by other companies” likely to fill the area in the future.
Concerns over the industry’s impact — on energy consumption, water usage, noise, land and air quality — have risen among supervisors and residents since the approval of a 600-plus-acre data center campus in the Varina District.
Varina Supervisor Tyrone Nelson’s district has the county’s highest concentration of data centers. Nelson said during May 15’s public hearing that his constituents have borne the brunt of these negative impacts.
“We are trying to keep — I am trying to keep — data centers from spreading all across the Varina District,” Nelson said Thursday.
Nelson added that the ordinance drafted by county staff is meant to deter data centers from expanding farther into his district and the county.
How do the zoning changes work?
The proposal would amend Henrico’s 2026 Comprehensive Plan to add an overlay district called the Technology Boulevard Special Focus Area. The general boundaries would include the White Oak Technology Park and abutting properties south of Interstate 64 — approximately 80 parcels totaling around 3,100 acres.
The TBSFA would incentivize development of data centers in that area of Varina and outline specific design, planning and review standards for other parts of Henrico.
This set of changes would also require developers to undergo a public process and have their cases heard before the board of supervisors, rather than by-right zoning ascribed to some of the county's existing ordinances.
Before the county rewrote its zoning code in 2021, data centers weren’t listed as an intended use. Instead they were classified under Henrico’s existing office or warehouse zoning, which resulted in numerous small data center facilities developed in many locations throughout the county.
Henrico’s zoning ordinance was changed so that large-scale data center developers could not be developed by-right, but a large sum of these smaller zoning districts still exist and are in close proximity to residential developments and commercial hubs.
Henrico officials ran up against a similar zoning discrepancy, which paved the way for a new casino-like facility to operate at the Staples Mill Shopping Center in the Brookland District.
The proposed zoning amendment would give county supervisors the authority to review data center proposals outside the intended overlay district, to consider whether the development should be permitted.
Nelson publicly supported the proposal on May 15. “It keeps us from no longer being at the mercy of zoning of land,” he said. “Now the board gets the opportunity to hear each individual case and we make a decision on each individual case; you get the opportunity to speak on each individual case.”
Supervisors and residents expressed positive interest toward the changes if they would limit data centers outside of the industry’s existing county footprint. Developers spoke against the proposed changes and asked that projects currently being reviewed be grandfathered in, rather than go through an additional permitting process.
Andrew Condlin, a Henrico resident and member of local commercial real estate firm Roth Jackson, was not opposed to the “guardrails” presented by the board. However, he voiced concern that the speed with which this ordinance is set to be passed could create problems down the line.
“No matter how good [the] staff is, and your staff is very good, there’s always room for improvement,” Condlin said last week. “My ask for you tonight is to take the time to make sure we get this done right.”
Although the planning commission was largely in favor of passing the ordinance as written, the board of supervisors asked staff to consider additional amendments that would remove the proposed overlay district and instead apply the data center regulations to all of Henrico.
