The Prince William Board of County Supervisors has indefinitely shelved an Amazon data center campus ahead of its October 22 meeting.

Elsewhere in Virginia, a 1 million sq ft data center in Ashburn has been recommended for approval, and two other applications - one in Henrico County, and another in Loudoun County - have been recommended for denial.

A proposal to build three Amazon data centers in Prince William County has been indefinitely shelved by county supervisors.

As reported by InsideNova, the proposed data centers would be built along Ashton Avenue and were set to be discussed by County Supervisors during an October 22 meeting.

The proposal was previously recommended for denial by the county planning commission in June, citing concerns regarding noise, impacts on local wildlife, and the site's proximity to residential areas.

In light of this, Amazon officials asked the board to withdraw the proposal from the agenda of the October meeting.

The proposal would see Amazon developing 52 acres at 8552 Ashton Avenue, rezoning them from agricultural and residential use to industrial and transportation. The cloud giant was seeking building height allowances of up to 95 feet for the three data centers.

Amazon decided to withdraw its plans, stating that the company did not have enough time between its community engagement open house earlier in October to make adjustments. In an email to InsideNova, the company reiterated its intention to build on the site.

Amazon previously sought to develop a campus along Ashton Avenue in July 2021, seeking to build four data centers on 80 acres of land. In December 2022, the company decided to pause the plans after county staff recommended the denial of the project.

Similar concerns were cited, including noise levels and building heights.

Planning Commission recommends approval for CloudHQ data center in Loudoun County

Elsewhere in Northern Virginia, a 965,038 sq ft (89,655 sqm) data center project has been recommended for approval by the Loudoun County Planning Commission, reports LoudounNow.

Proposed by CloudHQ, the project is an amendment to a previous concept plan that had been approved but did not include a data center. The new proposal will see the floor area ratio increase from 0.6 to 1.0 on 26 acres.

The site set to be developed is located along Loudoun County Parkway.

During an October 10 meeting, County Project Manager Allison Britain requested more information including the exact location of the building, its size, and where outdoor equipment will be located externally to the building. The company says that it will obscure outdoor equipment with screening buffers.

The proposal will also see Lockridge Road be damaged, and Britain has asked that the applicant cover costs for its restoration.

The project will now move to the Board of Supervisors for deliberation.

In 2022, CloudHQ planned to develop up to 4 million sq ft of data center buildings on a 96.8-acre site also along Loudoun County Parkway.

According to CloudHQ's website, the company is looking to develop 10 data centers in the area around Loudoun County Parkway with a total capacity of 1.7GW. Two of those data centers, LC3 and LC4 are currently under construction and will offer up to 230MW of capacity combined. The latest proposal is likely part of this campus.

CloudHQ currently has 12 campuses globally, and more than 355MW of IT capacity in operation. In the US, the company either has campuses operating or in development in Santa Clara, California; San Antonio, Texas; Chaska, Minnesota; Chicago, Illinois; and Culpeper and Ashburn, Virginia.

Henrico County and Loudoun County recommend denial of data center projects

Two other recent data center projects have been less fortunate, with their respective planning commissions recommending denial for the projects.

On September 24, a proposal from PowerHouse Data Centers to expand an already approved data center project and add a substation reports LoudounNow.

Located along Arcola Boulevard in Arcola, Virginia, the company sought to rezone an additional 6.8 acres, build a substation, increase its building height restriction from 60 to 100 feet, and increase the permitted space from 460,000 sq ft to 786,369 sq ft.

The company's previously approved application was to develop a 23-acre site with two two-story buildings and 12 data halls across 614,300 sq ft (57,070 sqm). The buildings were planned to offer 54MW and 66MW. Construction was due to begin in April 2024 and end in 2025, with the second building finished in 2026.

According to PowerHouse representative Brian Winterhalter, the proposed substation would serve the area surrounding as well as the data centers, and Dominion had informed the company it was seeking a location for a substation.

However, planning staff recommended a vote be delayed until PowerHouse addresses their concern surrounding building height and the proximity of a substation to residential areas - the nearest house being just 100 feet away.

“There are certain areas that are good for data centers. There are certain places that are not. I don’t believe this is a good place to knowingly put a substation around here and also increase the building height,” Commissioner Madhava Madireddy said.

Other commissioners recommended swapping the data center and substation locations, or placing the substation on a different plot of land. The recommendation to deny the project passed 7-2.

PowerHouse was founded in 2022. The company currently has a data center campus in Ashburn, Virginia, which was leased to CyrusOne in May 2023, and is planning developments on two other sites in the state in Loudoun County, in Sterling and Spotsylvania.

A different data center proposal in Henrico County similarly failed to impress the local Planning Commission, with a recommendation of denial going through at the October 10 meeting.

The proposal was for a data center and light industrial complex on the Richmond-Henrico Turnpike near the intersection with Azalea Avenue, reports the Henrico Citizen.

The project was proposed by landowner BWS Enterprises LLC and DC Blox, which had already altered the proposal in an attempt to mollify the commission.

Originally a 27-acre project, it was increased to 32 acres, before being shrunk to just 5.8 acres prior to the meeting.

The data center would be one 70,000 sq ft (6,500 sqm), 10MW facility.

Despite the reduction, it was still recommended for denial by commissioners with some raising questions about the diesel generators and potential noise levels.

The project will still go to the Board of Supervisors for final consideration.