Officials in Prince William County, Virginia, have denied a zoning request for a data center project.

On November 5, the County’s planning commission voted 4-3 to deny a request to allow a data center use on a 40-acre land parcel.

If the request had been approved, the data center buildings would be a maximum of 80 feet tall, whilst non-data center buildings would be limited to 75 feet.

Although Prince William County Staff had recommended that the planning commission approve the proposal, commissioners were hesitant to approve the request, given that the parcel lay outside of the County’s designated data center development zones, otherwise known as Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay Districts.

The land parcel, which is located west of Prince William Parkway, south of Wellington Road, and East of Hornbaker Road, was specifically removed from the overlay zone in 2019.

A final decision on whether the project gets the go-ahead will be made by the county board at a later date.

The applicant, SJP Acquisitions Inc, is a subsidiary of real estate firm St. John Properties. The latter has previously been involved with data center deals primarily as a seller rather than a buyer of land.

The identity of the facility’s intended end-user is also unclear.

Prince William County, located in the global data heartland of northern Virginia, has positioned itself as a likely successor to Loudoun County, which currently forms the backbone of the state’s “data center alley.”

Just two weeks ago, Amazon reportedly acquired land in the County’s Devlin Technology Park, which is a planned development.