Heritage Commission - Land Use Review Subcommittee - Sep 14, 2026

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Loudoun County Board Committees and Advisory Boards 53 min 8 agenda items transcribed 1 day ago official recording ↗

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What is the data‑center position paper and why is it being discussed now?

Unknown 0:02

The agenda, we are called to order at 536. We can begin with a discussion of the data center position paper, which is actually under new business since we have passed out a copy of that position paper. if everyone is willing to sort of jump over the old business is that the letter is the position paper well yes we can decide what it is we want it to be it can be a letter it can be a position paper it can be um whatever it is we want it to be we are in control of how it is we want to do it. And we can then decide tonight or not to bring it to the full commission. I am expecting that data center, regardless of what we do in our land use committee, is going to be a subject of discussion at the full commission since it's a huge subject of discussion

Unknown 1:16

in the community one way or the other. and i would like to be prepared to offer this as something the full commission can do i also want to be prepared to offer this as something we can deliver to the board tonight or tomorrow although gene i've been gene the chair of the full commission uh as of right now is hoping we can deliver it in October, but that's something that we as a subcommittee can discuss. You have the letter. I will say, I feel as if, and I told Jane this, and I feel this way, I've been swimming in the muck of data centers for years now, and I don't feel that we ever sort of go in any direction as a county beyond just bemoaning the fact that there's too much development of it. And there seems to be

Unknown 2:21

of feeling at this point that we need to at the very least take a pause on the development. My feeling is simply taking a pause on the development is really not doing much at all. What I believe needs to be done is a deep dive and study of what the effects of data centers are what they are doing, what's bad about them, what's good about them, what the future of data centers are going to bring to the county. Because even if you take a pause on the development of them, the data centers themselves are going to stay here. And the nature of data centers And this is why I think it's very important to do something now. The nature of data centers themselves are going to be changing because of artificial intelligence.

Unknown 3:22

The energy uses are going to get bigger. The effect on the environment is going to get stronger. The need, the kinds of energy that they are going to need is going to change. all of which is documented, and that the effects on the community around them is going to change. And that is part of what I need to document in the letter. I understand that. But all of this is pretty well understood. So even if there's a pause, what happens, or a moratorium even, A moratorium, in my mind, says there'll be an end to the moratorium. And what happens at the end of that moratorium is what happens. And I honestly don't believe that we have a thorough understanding in Loudoun County of what that means, not only to Loudoun County, but to the rest of the country, because we are the center of data centers.

Unknown 4:37

And until we do have a thorough understanding of that, I don't think we can proceed with letting the development continue or making decisions about the energy needs, the substation needs, the generator needs, all of the things that go along with data centers. And I also believe that at some point, some of those decisions are going to be taken out of our hands if we don't make the decisions. There's a national security question. There are national rules about energy. All of these things that we, as a county, I don't think thoroughly understand, and I think we should have. what I've been calling a blue ribbon panel made up of multiple types of people with expertise beyond which I just think we can't have the kind of study that has been the type the county usually has, which is we put together the best staff we have

Unknown 5:48

and the best policy. Yes, and hire a consultant and then be done with it. I think we have to go way beyond that. And that's what I've been trying to put into this. Has the data center committee, I know that I've got a couple of comments.