York County moves to regulate data centers

YORK COUNTY – The York County Board of Supervisors is making strides to prevent fallout from data centers that may want to call the county home in the future.

The board unanimously passed an ordinance on Tuesday that regulates noise generation, energy consumption and water usage for any proposed data centers, even though no such proposals are currently on the horizon.

The vote came after the county’s planning commission approached the supervisors in March to raise concerns about the possibility of future data center development in the county.

Without regulations in place, a new data center could create demand to upgrade the county’s energy infrastructure, the commission said. That costly endeavor would be passed onto the citizens.

Under the new policy, a data center developer would be required to submit a letter from the electric utility, as well as the public water purveyor, stating that the county’s current infrastructure is sufficient to serve the proposed data center.

The ordinance also attempts to rein in noise by restricting on-site generator testing to no more than two hours per day.

During public comments, residents asked the board to be proactive in ensuring that future data centers don’t interfere with residents’ quality of life.

Ann Grigorian urged the board to develop specific language that would limit light pollution and restrict the constant noise the centers’ cooling fans can generate.

Resident Mark Williams said that while a data center could be beneficial economically for the county, he, too, worries about the noise.

“I look forward to a data center here because we need the jobs for construction as well as long term,” Williams said. “However, whatever noise abatement that could be established to protect anybody’s homes [or businesses], that would be great.”

Context: Data centers have become a topic of contention during General Assembly meetings over the past few years as their construction has skyrocketed in the Commonwealth.

Northern Virginia is the largest data center market in the world, containing a quarter of all data centers in the Americas, according to a report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. Significant growth is expected to push further south and has already been seen along the I-95 corridor to Central Virginia.

The controversy: Data centers provide a significant boost to Virginia’s economy, supplying 74,000 jobs, $5.5 billion in labor income and $9.1 billion in GDP to the Commonwealth annually. Localities also benefit from substantial tax revenues from the industry through the taxes they are required to pay.

Nonetheless, the massive facilities – used to house computer systems and telecommunications storage equipment – have ignited controversy in some of the areas where they have been built.

In Prince William County, battles surrounding data centers have become central to local politics. The county’s top elected official, Board Chair Ann Wheeler, was unexpectedly ousted during the primary election on Tuesday because of her support for a large data center project.

Residents of the county have complained that the centers are “noisy, ugly and consume massive amounts of electricity that require the addition of high-voltage transmission lines,” according to the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, a data center project proposal was rejected in Chesapeake earlier this week, The Virginian-Pilot reports.

What’s next: While York County’s supervisors refrained from adding additional noise or light restrictions to the new ordinance, they agreed they may revisit the issue later.

Board Chair Sheila Null and District 5 Supervisor Thomas Shepperd agreed that while stronger regulations could be coming down the pike, it is important to make some progress now.

“I think this is a good start,” Shepperd said.

“We’re ahead of the game, if you will, because we have started on this,” Null said. “I just want to get us moving. We need to keep moving on it.”