Chesapeake’s City Council received a rare standing ovation from a packed chamber Tuesday night after it voted unanimously to reject a proposed data center.
“It was like Christmas again,” said Helen Messer, who lives in one of the houses that sits a few hundred feet from where the data center would have been. “I’ll sleep better than I have in a month.”
The proposal from long-time Chesapeake developer Doug Fuller would have been the region’s first major data center. He pitched a 350,000-square-foot facility at the corner of Ethridge Manor and Centerville Turnpike, where Chesapeake’s Great Bridge suburbs give way to farmland, arguing it could be a huge financial windfall for the city and capitalize on new internet infrastructure the city is spending tens of millions on.
Council appeared to clear the way for data center development in April by removing a decades-old development restriction on the property. City staff also issued a report supporting the data center but the city’s planning commission recommended denial at its meeting last month.
Messer and nearly 50 other residents ran down a long list of concerns about data centers over the course of Tuesday’s meeting.
The biggest worry was the impacts on residents’ health from the around-the-clock noise created by generators and HVAC systems, especially the particularly low frequencies that can penetrate into homes. Many also cited data centers’ high usage of water and power, which they worried could raise utility rates on citizens and increase pollution.
After two-and-a-half hours of public comments, the council ignored a request from Fuller to delay the vote until later this summer and denied the rezoning request on a vote of 7-0.
Mayor Rick West was absent from Tuesday’s meeting and Councilman Daniel Whitaker recused himself, saying he had business dealings with Fuller.
Before the vote, councilwoman Amanda Newins pointedly asked Deputy City Manager Brian Solis if the city offered to swap city-owned property in a more appropriate location for Fuller’s lot. Price said they floated the idea, but Fuller didn’t seem interested.
“I think there are viable areas this could go in our city, and could flourish in our city, but I don’t think anything near a residential area is (viable),” Newins said.
Several opponents pointed to ongoing issues in Northern Virginia, where data centers have proliferated over the last decade and localities are scrambling to deal with the impacts on residents.
Data center development was a big topic in the General Assembly earlier this year, though none of the proposed restrictions on development of such facilities became law. In vetoing one piece of legislation, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said it should be left to localities to decide how to manage data centers.
Chesapeake resident Brian Dunmire asked the council to put development guardrails in place before even considering a data center proposal.
“If you don’t lead with policy, it’s the residents who will bear the cost,” he said.
Many in the council chambers Tuesday worried that approving one data center would open the floodgates.
Jennifer Anderson said she moved into the neighborhood near the proposed data center site this February and loves seeing the stars, hearing birds chirping and walking to nearby parks with her two young children.
“I believe in my gut if this data center is approved, more will come, and all these things we love about our new home will either be reduced greatly or removed entirely.”
