{"id":5468,"date":"2025-05-17T05:22:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T21:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/proposed-data-center-blocked-by-planning-authority-in-chesapeake-virginia\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T05:22:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T21:22:49","slug":"proposed-data-center-blocked-by-planning-authority-in-chesapeake-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/proposed-data-center-blocked-by-planning-authority-in-chesapeake-virginia\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed data center blocked by planning authority in Chesapeake, Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.datacenterdynamics.com\/media\/images\/Rendering_of_Chesapeake_DC.2e16d0ba.fill-750x500.png\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p data-block-key=\"arlml\">A land rezoning proposal for a potential data center project in Chesapeake, Virginia, has received a recommendation of <a href=\"https:\/\/chesapeake.granicus.com\/DocumentViewer.php?file=chesapeake_d14c94a3cacccf37c848d9b051545f80.pdf&amp;view=1\">denial<\/a> by local planners.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"6vdb8\">First <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cityofchesapeake.net\/DocumentCenter\/View\/23727\/PLN-REZ-2025-002---Etheridge-Lakes-Data-Centerpdf\">submitted<\/a> in late January, the proposal intended to rezone an approximately 22.6-acre land parcel, located on the west side of Centerville Turnpike and south of Etheridge Manor Boulevard, for a 350,000 sq ft (32,000 sqm) data center.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-block-key=\"arlml\">First reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pilotonline.com\/2025\/05\/15\/chesapeake-data-center-vote-denied\/\">The Virginian Pilot<\/a>, more than 50 locals spoke during the May 15 meeting of the Chesapeake Planning Commission, which concluded with a 6-1 vote against recommending approval for the proposal to the city council. Joshua Gerloff, the chair of the commission, said during the meeting that 650 emails and a petition with 450 signatures had been received in opposition to the project.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"67b23\">Concerns about the environmental impact, water supply, the power grid, and noise were raised. The location of the project, directly across from the Etheridge Lakes residential area, proved particularly controversial.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"e9g10\">Douglas Fuller, speaking on behalf of the landowner Emerald Lake Estates, told The Virginian Pilot that \u201cThere were a lot of valid questions that were asked last night that I did not have the answers for. Reason being, it was not part of the application process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"feica\">The project could still be approved by the city council.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"1stpm\">Chesapeake is a city on the southern border of Virginia. Though it has little in the way of data centers, most large operators have a presence in the state, concentrated in Northern Virginia and around Richmond.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"h0e9\">Opposition within Virginia has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.datacenterdynamics.com\/en\/analysis\/outreach-with-the-opposition-a-conversation-with-the-piedmont-environmental-council\/\">grown<\/a> in lockstep with the industry, and grassroots anger has morphed into organised activism. Democratic and Republican state legislators have taken action, which recently culminated in a controversy over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.datacenterdynamics.com\/en\/news\/virginia-governor-delays-data-center-environmental-transparency-bill-despite-bipartisan-support\/\">delays<\/a> introduced by the state Governor, Glenn Youngkin, to a data center environmental transparency bill.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A land rezoning proposal for a potential data center project in Chesapeake, Virginia, has received a recommendation of denial by local planners. First submitted in late January, the proposal intended to rezone an approximately 22.6-acre land parcel, located on the west side of Centerville Turnpike and south of Etheridge Manor Boulevard, for a 350,000 sq [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}