Data center park developer Diode Ventures has dropped plans to develop a campus outside Richmond, Virginia, after backlash from local residents.

Diode Ventures submitted plans to the Charles City County planning commission for a new data center project known as the Roxbury Technology Park last year, before submitting a revised version earlier this year.

The 515-acre site is located some 20 miles east of Richmond. The total number of planned capacity of the park's data centers were never shared.

The county planning commission recommended approval of the project at its meeting in May. In June, however, the Charles City County board of supervisors opted to delay voting on the rezoning proposal in the face of local opposition. Concerns were raised about “potential environmental impacts, noise and light pollution, the lack of an identified end user,” and a lack of transparency from the developer.

This week, Diode confirmed in a statement to BizSense that it had withdrawn its application for the project and notified the county board. Diode said it does not currently have plans to resubmit the application on the site or anywhere else within Charles City County.

A county representative confirmed to the publication that the application has been withdrawn.

“Despite the county planning commission’s support of the project earlier this year, we made the decision to shift our focus elsewhere based on the results of conversations with our local collaborators and analysis of the site’s availability to be shovel-ready with power and municipal support,” Diode said.

The company added: “Moving forward, Diode is committed to seeking opportunities to align future projects and their associated substantial financial and infrastructure benefits with the needs and values of the communities where we operate.”

The plans were seemingly pulled at short notice, with a project update on Diode’s website from August 18 noting the company had filed revised proffers for the project as recently as August 13.

Black & Veatch subsidiary Diode Ventures has developed several data center parks around Kansas City and is planning more in the area. Meta and Google are customers. It also has a project in Idaho.