Planning Commission Special Work Session
meeting
Loudoun County Planning Commission
1h 21m
6 speakers
8 agenda items
transcribed 8 days ago
official recording ↗
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the purpose of the October 22 2024 Planning Commission work session and who is presenting?
All right. Well we'll we're we'll go ahead and uh Start this one and we're going to we'll wait and do disclosures and minutes and all that in our public hearing. So good evening everyone. The October twenty second, twenty twenty four Loudoun County Planning Commission work session will now come to order. Our sole item on this work session agenda is the CPAM 2024-0001 and Zoam 2024-0001 data center standards and locations phase one. And we are fortunate to be joined by uh Supervisor Turner, who is going to brief us on a subject that he is could probably lead a full semester course on at this point. Uh he has attained so much knowledge and uh give us that background so as we go forward in our Further considerations and deliberations, we we kind of have some context of.
What the what the board knows, we know then as well. So we are ready, Mr. Turner. We're happy to have you here and go ahead and uh Start the show.
Thank you, Chair Frank. So I appreciate it. Um well the evolution of this uh uh almost a year ago to the day, the Virginia Association of Counties at their annual meeting asked me to do a presentation on Loudoun County data centers. So I spent two or three days putting together some slides, which was the genesis of this presentation here. And um the the briefing at the time said this is how we got here and these are the challenges we're facing, and then it stopped. And after I gave the presentation, I thought I really kind of have an obligation as a sitting supervisor in Loudoun County to at least explore where it's headed and what some possible solutions are to these challenges. And so that led to the white paper and an expansion of this presentation.
Um my white paper has a disclaimer on the top, and I will paraphrase it here. These are my opinions. This I don't represent the Board of Supervisors, I don't represent Any county agency. These are just my ideas. They may be controversial, and if so, let's dive in and deal with the controversy. The intent of the paper and the presentation is to establish a factual foundation of knowledge for anyone who is prepared to engage in this conversation and then derive their own conclusions therefrom. So it's not intended to push any particular point of view. I've got to particularly nasty email from a Loudoun County resident uh a few weeks ago. And the first sentence in the email was, well, I read Turner's disgusting paper.
That was the first sentence. Um, and his feeling, though, was that I was pushing a certain type of power source for a microgrid. And I replied to him, I said, I'm not pushing anything. Their technology and science right now has led to a certain available of availability of choices for other power sources that are they're just that's just reality. And we the the data center community may choose. to use them or not to use them. But really it's just intended to start a fact-based discussion because the challenges Leiden County facing right now are prodigious, as I think this presentation will demonstrate. Um I started off by saying where'd we how'd we get here? So here are the key milestones. I'm gonna I I'm this is an hour long presentation.
I'm gonna condense it to a half an hour. Um so I'm gonna rush through some of these slides and and try and capture them in summary. But basically '93's update of the 72 zoning ordinance had no mention of data centers. Uh the latter half of the nineties was when the Metropolitan Area Exchange East was established in Loudoun County when AOL headquarters moved here. That was basically the start of the web and the and the and the real advancement of the Internet. In 2000, a zoning administration determination said that data centers are viewed as similar as office buildings, and that's what put data centers available to be put on PDIP, PDOP, all the general office building permissions. And office parks were a hot trend back then.
2001, the general plan was updated. The ordinance was updated to match the general plan. And that was the first mention of data centers in the zoning ordinance in 2003.
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Agenda
8 items
1
What is the purpose of the October 22 2024 Planning Commission work session and who is presenting?
3:10–14:59
2
How did data‑center zoning evolve in Loudoun County and what milestones shaped current regulations?
14:59–26:03
3
Why are projected power demands (gigawatts) for data centers expected to outpace the grid by 2028?
26:03–35:31
4
What micro‑grid and on‑site power options (diesel, natural‑gas, hydrogen, SMR) are being considered for future data centers?
35:31–45:10
5
How could small modular nuclear reactors address the county’s energy shortfall and what are the regulatory hurdles?
45:10–54:15
6
What performance standards, tax incentives, and CPAM/Zoam provisions are being debated for new data‑center projects?
54:15–1:03:38
7
How are commissioners interpreting load‑violation warnings when reviewing current and future applications?
1:03:38–1:12:57
8
What are the next steps, scheduling decisions, and closing remarks for the work session?
1:12:57–1:20:35
Speakers
6 identified
Michael R. Turner 48 min
Michelle Frank 6 min
Robin-Eve Jasper 5 min
Dale Polen Myers 4 min
Mark Miller 2 min
Ad Barnes
Officials recognised by voice; public commenters shown as “Speaker N” unless they state their name.
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