Data centers require Special Exception approval in the Industrial Park (IP), General Industry (GI), and Mineral Resource–Heavy Industry (MR-HI) zoning districts, where they were previously permitted by right.

Data centers are designated as conditional uses, rather than core or complementary uses, in the Suburban Industrial/Mineral Extraction, Transition Light Industrial, Transition Industrial/Mineral Extraction, Leesburg JLMA Industrial/Mineral Extraction, and Leesburg JLMA Employment place types.

Applicants must submit information with a site plan sufficient to demonstrate compliance with the data-center-specific standards, and conditional or final site-plan approval depends on that demonstration.

Principal building facades must incorporate differentiated surfaces at intervals no greater than 150 horizontal feet or three times the building’s average height, whichever results in the more frequent interval.

Each principal facade must generally provide fenestration covering at least 30% of its surface area, distributed in separate placements or bays, with each placement or bay counting for no more than 7.5% of the facade area. A green-wall treatment may replace up to half of the required fenestration coverage.

Each data-center building must include a main entrance feature that projects or recesses from the building plane or uses differentiated materials, together with foundation plantings or enhanced landscaping.

Loading bays may be located on only one building facade.

Ground-level and rooftop mechanical equipment must be shown on the site plan and fully screened on all sides with visually solid, compatible screening, subject to limited ventilation-related perforations. Ground-mounted equipment cannot be located in a required front yard.

Ground-mounted mechanical equipment must be separated from residentially developed, residentially planned, or residentially zoned property by a principal building and is otherwise not permitted adjacent to such property, subject to the ordinance’s screening exception for certain adjacent IP, GI, or MR-HI property.

Refuse collection areas must be fully screened, and loading bays must be screened from adjacent properties and existing or planned public roads.

Where a data center is adjacent to existing or planned residential development or a zoning district permitting residential uses, parking must be at least 100 feet from the common property line and structures must be at least 200 feet from it.

Building facades facing residentially adjacent property must include changes in building height at intervals no greater than 150 horizontal feet or three times the building’s average height, and buildings within 400 feet of such property must provide a step-back of at least 15 feet beginning at the top of the second story or 40 feet, whichever is lower.

For data centers adjacent to residentially developed, residentially planned, or residentially zoned property, generator testing, except commissioning, is limited to weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and generators may otherwise be used only for backup or emergency purposes.

Data centers must provide a photometric plan covering all exterior and security lighting, and security lighting counts toward the applicable maximum illumination limits.

Data centers are subject to the ordinance’s noise-study requirements.

Data centers must comply with specified landscaping and buffer composition limits, including limits on deciduous trees, required evergreen trees at least 8 feet high, and limits on shrubs, ornamental grasses, and perennials.

The required data-center buffer is a Type C buffer located on an earthen berm at least 6 feet high with a grade lower than 2:1, subject to limited substitution using equivalent natural topography and vegetation.

Data centers must comply with the zoning ordinance’s utility, transportation, and applicable LPAT trail requirements, except that the mid-block passageway requirement does not apply.

In the Town Center (TC) zoning district, data centers must be at least three stories tall, use building-mounted and fully enclosed generators, cooling equipment, storage facilities, and related infrastructure, and generally cannot have exterior ground-floor security fencing, walls, or barriers.

In the TC zoning district, a data center may occupy no more than 49% of the gross floor area of the building and may not be located in a building containing residential uses.

For minor changes to an approved data-center site plan, the ordinance allows administrative processing without a new Special Exception only by applying the standards of Section 10.11.01.H, including the limitation that floor-area increases may not exceed 5% of the existing gross floor area.

The grandfathering resolution applies only to legislative or administrative data-center applications officially accepted for review on or before February 12, 2025; applications accepted later cannot use that resolution to avoid the new Special Exception requirement.

A grandfathered administrative application must have been by-right when accepted and must place proposed data-center structures and external mechanical equipment more than 500 feet from all residential structures existing on February 12, 2025. Applicants must submit evidence subject to approval by the Office of Mapping and Geographic Information.

Grandfathered applications lose protection if they undergo specified substantial modifications, including certain increases in floor area, increases in building height, reduced setbacks, changes or additions of uses, or changes or increases in the application area.

Grandfathered applications must be diligently pursued. Among other requirements, applicants generally have six months to respond to requested resubmissions or supporting materials, and administrative applications must comply with applicable regulations within three years after February 12, 2025.

The grandfathering resolution protects only the data-center use requirements in Table 3.02.05-1; it does not grandfather other Zoning Ordinance, subdivision, facilities-standard, or other applicable requirements.

A zoning map amendment, zoning concept plan amendment, or Route 28 zoning conversion approved on or before March 18, 2025, may be deemed to include a Special Exception for a specific data-center use only if the application details that specific use through proffers, a detailed concept development plan, or both, and is limited to that use.

Grandfathered legislative applications officially accepted for review on or before February 12, 2025, may continue processing without obtaining a data-center special exception, provided they avoid substantial modifications and diligently pursue approval.

Grandfathered administrative applications officially accepted by February 12, 2025, may proceed without a special exception if the use was by-right when accepted, proposed structures and external mechanical equipment are more than 500 feet from existing residential structures, and the application is not substantially modified or abandoned.

Certain approved ZMAP, ZCPA, and ZRTD applications approved on or before March 18, 2025, with detailed, specific, and limited data-center uses are deemed to include a special-exception approval for those uses.

Minor changes to an approved data-center site plan may be approved without a new special exception. The flexibility follows Section 10.11.01.H and covers qualifying accessory structures, building or parking realignments, and floor-area increases of no more than 5 percent.

Green-wall treatment may replace up to half of the required principal-facade fenestration, up to a maximum of 15 percent of the facade's required surface coverage, reducing the amount of conventional fenestration otherwise required.

A data-center mechanical-equipment facade may substitute for one required principal facade when two opposing principal facades are required, subject to visual screening and facade-design requirements.

Buffer substitution using topography and existing vegetation is allowed when the County Urban Forester determines that the resulting screening is equivalent to the specified buffer and berm. Equipment adjacent to IP, GI, or MR-HI property may also avoid the ordinary equipment-screening requirement when the Zoning Administrator finds no adverse impact, although screening from public roads remains required.

Site-specific energy storage facilities for data centers may serve on-site needs and occupy up to 30 percent of the data center's gross floor area, supporting on-site power operations subject to the applicable energy-storage standards.

Data centers in the TC Zoning District may occupy up to 49 percent of a building's gross floor area, provided the building is at least three stories, is not residential, and meets the specified design, equipment-screening, and generator-testing limits.

The plan amendment designates data centers as a conditional use in the 2019 General Plan, adding a conditional-use restriction to their siting. The amendment designates data centers a conditional use.

Data center uses in the Industrial Park (IP), General Industry (GI), and Mineral Resources-Heavy Industry (MR-HI) zoning districts require Special Exception (SPEX) approval. Certain applications accepted before February 12, 2025, may continue review without SPEX approval under the grandfathering resolution. The amendment requires SPEX approval in these districts; the grandfathering provision covers certain applications accepted before February 12, 2025.

Certain data center applications accepted before February 12, 2025, may continue through review and processing without Special Exception approval for data center use. Eligibility is limited to applications meeting the resolution’s rules. The resolution outlines rules for qualifying applications

Data centers are changed from core or complementary uses to conditional uses in the Suburban Industrial/Mineral Extraction, Transition Light Industrial, Transition Industrial/Mineral Extraction, Leesburg JLMA Employment, and Leesburg JLMA Industrial/Mineral Extraction place types. Proposed data centers in these areas must therefore be evaluated case by case and may be approved with conditions or denied.

Data centers in the Industrial Park (IP), General Industry (GI), and Mineral Resource–Heavy Industry (MR-HI) zoning districts require approval of a Special Exception (SPEX) instead of being allowed by right. SPEX applications require Board approval and public hearings, and may include conditions such as additional landscaping, wider buffers, height limits, or other mitigation.

The General Plan map redesignates the Arcola area and Goose Creek Club to residential neighborhood place types, where data centers are not an anticipated use, and replaces the Urban Employment place type north of the Loudoun Gateway Metro Station with the Urban Transit Center place type, whose listed uses do not include data centers.

Administrative applications accepted by February 12, 2025, may avoid the new SPEX requirement only if the data center was permitted by right when accepted, the proposed structures and external mechanical equipment are more than 500 feet from residential structures existing on that date, and the applicant submits evidence approved by the Office of Mapping and Geographic Information.

Grandfathered legislative applications must not undergo a substantial modification. Such a modification includes changes requiring additional approval for increased floor area ratio or building height, reduced setbacks, changes or additions to proposed uses, increases or changes to the application area, or changes requiring remand to the Planning Commission. Exceptions apply when the change is requested by the Board, Planning Commission, or County staff.

Grandfathered administrative applications lose protection if they increase data-center square footage by more than 5 percent, exceed the district's maximum floor area ratio, increase building height, reduce required setbacks or the 500-foot residential separation, change or add uses, or change or increase the application area. Changes requested by County staff are excepted.

Grandfathered applications must be diligently pursued. Legislative applications can lose grandfathered status after failures such as not resubmitting materials within six months of a request, missing hearing-submission deadlines, withdrawal, or becoming inactive. Administrative applications can lose status for similar six-month failures, withdrawal or inactivity, or failure to submit compliant materials within three years after February 12, 2025.

An application that loses grandfathered status must comply with the new zoning table, including the SPEX requirement, rather than continuing under the prior by-right rules.

The amendment's grandfathering rules apply only to the data-center requirements in Zoning Ordinance Table 3.02.05-1 and do not exempt grandfathered applications from other applicable Zoning Ordinance, subdivision, facilities, or other regulatory requirements.

Legislative applications for data center uses that were officially accepted for review by February 12, 2025—including zoning map amendments, zoning concept plan amendments, and Route 28 tax-district zoning conversions—may continue without obtaining a special exception for the data center use. The application must not undergo a substantial modification and must be diligently pursued.

Administrative applications for data center uses that were officially accepted by February 12, 2025 may continue without a special exception if the use was permitted by-right when accepted, the proposed structures and external mechanical equipment are more than 500 feet from residential structures existing on that date, and the application is not substantially modified or allowed to become inactive.

Certain legislative approvals issued on or before March 18, 2025 are deemed to include a special exception for the data center use when the approval contains detailed data center proffers or plan information and is limited to that data center use.

Minor changes to an approved data center site plan or site plan amendment may be permitted without a new special exception. The changes are subject to the standards of Zoning Ordinance Section 10.11.01.H, including limited adjustments involving items such as accessory structures, building or parking realignments, and floor-area increases of no more than 5 percent.

A grandfathered application does not lose that protection when a modification is requested by or made in response to a recommendation adopted by the Board or Planning Commission, or to a County staff comment in an official referral or review memorandum, even if the modification would otherwise qualify as substantial.

Active applications that were grandfathered to the Revised 1993 Zoning Ordinance remain outside the scope of this zoning amendment as long as they retain their grandfathered status.