A proposal to build a 430-acre data center by powered land developer Tract has been rejected by local officials in Hanover County, Virginia, who voted against a conditional-use permit and rezoning for the Mountain Road Technology Park.

Tract, alongside affiliates of Marchetti Properties as well as Square Holding LLC, Tyson Farms Inc. (formerly Holly Farm Foods), and GM Tribble Jnr and Brenda R. Tribble, filed to rezone the land from A1-agriculture to M-1 light industrial in September.

The park would have been located along Route 33/Mountain Road in Hanover County and was set to offer 900MW of capacity, and would have been developed in phases until at least 2034.

But on May 27, opposition to the project led the Board of Supervisors to vote – by a margin of one – against the project.

Concerns about water usage, electricity usage, the loss of agricultural land, the impact of the campus on the feel of the area, and transparency have intensified as the project moved through the planning process.

A petition against all data center proposals in Hanover County has gathered more than 900 signatures at the time of writing.

“This is not just about one project; it’s about the future of Hanover. Approving even one of these data centers sets a dangerous precedent that nowhere in our community is safe from industrial development. It signals that our county is willing to sacrifice residents, affordability, farmland, and rural character for the profits of Big Tech,” reads the petition.

A separate data center proposal in the county dubbed the Iron Horse Business Park is set to be considered by local authorities in June, according to Richmond BizSense.

Stop Hanover Data Centers, a public Facebook group with more than 7,000 followers, said in a post that it was “still reeling from the… denial of the massive data center proposal.

“This was a collaboration of individuals from all backgrounds and political affiliations. And at a time where there is so much decisiveness — we didn’t just take down a massive data center, but we showed what can happen when we are all in this together.”

Colorado-based Tract was founded by former Cologix CEO Grant van Rooyen and describes itself as a company that acquires and develops ‘master-planned’ data center parks. The company aims to get sites zoned, powered, and shovel-ready for other companies to develop data centers on.