The Data Center Divide
A policy snapshot ahead of the 2026 midterms. Mapping data center incentives, restrictions, and bans through legislation, regulations, and executive actions across all 50 states and 1,462 local jurisdictions.
Arlington County
Mixed Data Center Policies
Virginia offers conditional tax breaks and optional local tax benefits for qualifying data centers, while requiring large new facilities to assess noise and certain generators to meet emission limits for applications from July 2026. Separate water reporting by covered suppliers is upcoming.
Rating and summary from Virginia statewide as there are no scored current or future laws outside temporary restrictions for Arlington County.
Specific to Arlington County only.
pending · County measureDoes not establish a binding data-center zoning amendment.Arlington County Zoning Ordinance — Data Center Zoning Amendment (2024)
What this means
The policy suggests considering zoning changes that could support data centers, but it is guidance for future action, not a rule that changes what is allowed now (consider adding data centers to use tables). The work plan says edge data centers can already be accommodated under current zoning, so these sources add no meaningful immediate benefit or restriction (can be accommodated within the ACZO).
People behind it
- Arlington County Board
Adopted the County Board Policy and authorized public hearings and consideration of the related zoning ordinance amendments.
- County Manager
Requested and obtained authorization to advertise public hearings on the policy and adaptive reuse zoning ordinance amendment.
- Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development
Coordinated the Commercial Market Resiliency Initiative and proposed and administered the adaptive reuse zoning and procedural framework.
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- Arlington Economic Development
Partnered with CPHD on the Commercial Market Resiliency Initiative and helped develop the office-repurposing policy and zoning amendments.
- Jill Hunger
CPHD official and memorandum co-author who coordinated the Rapid Response Team and managed processes for zoning ordinance amendments and adopted policy changes.
- Marc McCauley
Arlington Economic Development official and memorandum co-author involved in proposing and developing the adaptive reuse policy and zoning ordinance amendment.
- Rapid Response Team
Interdepartmental decision-making team responsible for researching emerging uses, prioritizing zoning amendments, and coordinating the Commercial Market Resiliency Initiative work plan.
Benefits & exceptionsHide benefits & exceptions3
The County directs staff to pursue amendments and additions to the Arlington County Zoning Ordinance use tables to allow uses that support repurposed office buildings, expressly including data centers.
The Commercial Market Resiliency Initiative establishes a Rapid Response Team to triage complex use-determination requests, research whether a proposed use is permitted, and advise the Zoning Administrator; if a use is not permitted, the team is directed to prioritize a zoning ordinance amendment. This process applies to emerging uses such as edge data centers.
The work plan records staff’s finding that an edge data center, as currently proposed, can be accommodated within the Arlington County Zoning Ordinance, reducing the need for a zoning amendment for that proposal.
Sources
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