Data centers in Loudoun County, Virginia: a source-linked guide

Upcoming: Board of Supervisors business meeting scheduled to act on the Golden Substation application (LEGI-2025-0012, SPEX-2025-0032, -0033 and -0137).

Upcoming: Board of Supervisors public hearing on the Dulles Technology Park zoning conversion and the appeal of the Planning Commission's denial for the Dulles North Technology Park substation. Per the agenda packet the Board must act on the appeal by Dec 1, 2026 or it is automatically denied.

Upcoming: SCC evidentiary hearing begins on Dominion's Morrisville-Wishing Star 500 kV line (PUR-2026-00021), per Dominion's project page.

Upcoming: Board scheduled to take up agenda item 14p, the resolution to pause consideration of legislative data center and substation applications. The pause would not take effect unless the Board adopts the resolution (DataCenterFeed, citing the county). Date per DataCenterFeed; confirm on the Board agenda.

Agenda item 14p, a resolution to pause Board consideration of legislative applications for data centers and substations for up to 12 months (effective date written as Sept 15, 2026), was removed from the Oct 20 business meeting agenda and deferred to Nov 17 to give the County Attorney time for more legal and fiscal analysis (Loudoun Now; county agenda item description).

Board voted to support a preliminary agreement with Amazon Web Services under which Amazon intends to withdraw its data center application on the former GWU campus in Ashburn. The county release describes the vote as unanimous, WTOP reports Supervisor Umstattd opposed a motion to fast-track the rezoning, so the vote count is conflicting. Terms are preliminary, final agreements are still pending.

Board voted 8-0-1 (Supervisor Briskman absent) to move the Golden Substation vote from Dec 1 to Nov 5, 2026, on a motion from Supervisor Saines tying it to an agreement among Dominion, Vantage and the Sterling district office to speed grid connection of Vantage VA2 from 2040 to 2028.

County staff item on pending legislative applications reports 33 active applications for data centers and related substations (10 data centers, 12 non-reliability substations, 1 grid-reliability-only substation and 10 combined data center and substation). The agenda item addressed whether to pause them. Figures are as stated in the agenda packet.

Board tabled, without a vote, a proposal to end grandfathering for pending data center projects and a companion motion for an outside audit of them. Bisnow reports 15 projects totaling about 10.5 million sq ft in 30 buildings are advancing under the legacy exemption; FOX 5 DC reports the County Attorney warned that ending grandfathering could cost the county up to $60 million in litigation (figures differ from the county's Sept 16 release, which cited at least 17 cases).

Scheduled: Board was set to receive County Attorney legal analysis on whether the 2025 grandfathering exceptions for pending administrative data center applications can be ended (per the Sept 16 release, which says at least 17 land use cases covering more than 11 million sq ft are grandfathered). [Unverified: the outcome of the Oct 6 item was not found.]

DEQ's list of issued air permits for data centers shows registration 74321-2 (Article 6 - mNSR) issued 2026-09-28 to Belmont Innovation Campus in Loudoun County. The list gives no project size or status; the entry says nothing about whether the facility is built.

Planning Commission recommended denial of the Dulles North Technology Park substation, 4-3-1 per ZoneWire (aggregator, not confirmed in a county document we opened). The applicant appealed the related commission permit denial on Oct 2, 2026.

Planning Commission recommended denial of the Dulles Technology Park zoning conversion (about 979,000 sq ft of data centers on 37.24 acres) in a close vote. The Loudoun Times calls it close, ZoneWire reports 5-4. A different ZoneWire page describes a Dulles Technology Park item as approved, which conflicts with this report and is treated as unreliable.

Board voted 7-1-1 to pause Board consideration of certain legislative applications for data centers and substations, advancing a proposal from Supervisor Briskman; a separate 7-1-1 vote approved an exception for 'grid reliability' substations. Per the Supervisor's Sept 16 release hosted on loudoun.gov, the pause takes effect immediately; County Attorney advised a blanket moratorium is not allowed. Later coverage says the formal resolution had not yet been adopted (see Oct 20 record), so whether the pause is in force is described differently by different sources.

Board denied, 6-3, a substation application near Washington Dulles International Airport (Tech Park at Dulles) that would have powered incoming data centers, on about 20 acres of an 83-acre site south of Old Ox Road.

Supervisor Saines held a town hall on noise and emissions from the on-site gas turbines at the Vantage VA2 data center in Sterling. Loudoun Now reports it is the only data center in Virginia running on on-site gas turbines.