Following strong opposition from residents at its July 28 meeting, the Henry County Board of Supervisors is working to strengthen its proposed data center ordinance before taking action.
More than 30 residents spoke against data centers during the meeting, prompting the board to pull the data center provisions from the proposed ordinance and give supervisors and county officials more time to review them.
The ordinance proposed by the planning commission would establish requirements for data centers locating in Henry County, including restrictions on the use of county water, noise standards and requirements that they be located only in industrially zoned areas.
The board did not approve any ordinances relating to data centers at the July 28 meeting.
Chairman Jim Adams, of the Blackberry District, said the county is trying to find common ground among the concerns raised by residents.
“Probably not going to end up with absolutely every single piece of what was said, but I think most folks want an idea as to how any proposal would be held accountable all the way up to if they were to decommission a facility. You know, who takes care of that, so to speak, and that’s similar to what you see in some of the things with solar farms and other types of operations. No one wants to be left with someone else’s leftovers that stay in a locality,” he said.
While the board and county administration assess residents’ suggestions and how they could be incorporated into the ordinance, Adams said he could not identify one specific criterion that needs to be added.
“I couldn’t do it at this time,” he said. In terms of zoning, “I think you could possibly isolate a specific area as to where anything could be held. In other words, we’ve got different areas, there could be something that strictly it had to meet criteria. But to name that, I think I would rather hear from the planning side of it as to what by law would be acceptable.”
In addition to assessing the ordinance from a legal standpoint, Adams said the county needs to examine what other localities are doing.
“Our whole thing from day one, even from what we had as part of what would have been part of the zoning ordinance amendments, that was better than nothing because it allowed a first look at things and identifying certain criteria. Nothing at all in that zoning ordinance is stating approval” for a potential project.
“It was more of protection,” Adams said.
Vice Chairman Travis Pruitt, of the Ridgeway District, said he was comfortable with what was initially presented to the board.
“I think they’re looking at more of the noise and water consumption and energy is a big piece of it. We want to make sure that it’s there because obviously after the meeting, we know what the community wants, and that’s no data centers at all,” he said.
Pruitt said residents need to remember the board was considering ordinances, not approving data centers.
“As of today we have nothing. So if one (data center) wanted to come today, there’s no ordinances that say they can’t. We have to get those guardrails in place to be able to determine” what standards they have to meet. “I think we have to start with a base and then make sure that’s in place now before we get data centers coming to Henry County,” he said.
Pruitt said the water usage and energy consumption sections of the proposed ordinance need to be strengthened.
“Do we have those resources available to them – that’s the biggest thing. And obviously not putting them on top of a residence. We don’t want them near our neighbors, we want them in an industrial park with other noise and things like that where they need to be, if they’re going to come at all,” Pruitt said.
Pruitt also noted that Virginia lawmakers formally requested Gov. Abigail Spanberger issue an executive order to stop all data centers.
“Now it could be in the state’s hands for a stop on them,” he said.
Debra Buchanan, of the Horsepasture District, said she believes the proposed ordinance needs to address buffer zones between data centers and neighboring properties.
“I think water quality is an issue, and the amount of water that they use. I do think we need to protect more of our farmland and I think we need to protect our waterways. I just need more information to make a sound judgment on it,” she said.
Buchanan said she has not seen anything the Planning Commission has worked with yet or talked with County Attorney George Lyle. She said she hopes Lyle will advise the board before it receives a board packet.
“We do need something in place for sure. I definitely believe that we need something in place, because if not then we leave ourselves wide open and vulnerable,” she said.
While she may not be in favor of data centers, Buchanan said the world is moving forward with and revolving around artificial intelligence.
“I was reading about Loudoun County, where I guess they call it ‘data center alley.’ They were talking about the big load on their grid and how people’s electricity had flickered, and so it’s proving that these data centers do have an effect on the surrounding areas. It’s not just that they’re isolated, and even though there might be a buffer around a data center and neighbors, it still doesn’t address the water and the electricity,” Buchanan said.
As supervisors and county staff continue researching data centers, Garrett Dillard, of the Iriswood District, said the ultimate goal is to put protections in place for Henry County and its residents.
“And then just to make sure that if a data center was to ever request to come to Henry County, that we have some things in place that holds them accountable,” he said.
Dillard said the county did not have siting agreements in place when solar farms first began locating in the county.
“But we put more and more siting agreements in place, that they had to have a decommissioning plan in place, make sure they have setbacks, controlling the noise, things of that nature. So we want to make sure that same thing doesn’t happen with data centers. They come in, the first few get in, get by us, they have issues, then we get better control. Of course then we want to make sure we’re protecting the environment,” Dillard said.
Dillard said the board and county administration need to revisit the initial proposed ordinance and examine what other localities are doing before putting together a revised proposal.
“I can’t specifically say what needs to be in there at this moment, but the main thing is that we just need to make sure that if a data center was to ever locate in Henry County, that our lands are protected, our environment is protected, and that data centers are held accountable for being responsible neighbors.
“You can’t build a big building and then in 25 to 30 years just leave, and the building’s just sitting there and we’re left to clean it up. You can’t use up our water source, you can’t come here and cause our electric bills to drastically increase. we want to make sure that they’re held accountable for that, and then that data centers are using the most up to date technology,” he said.
Pam Cobler, of the Reed Creek District, said she believes every part of the proposed ordinance needs to be strengthened.
“The utilities, making sure that none of the costs for the electric bills falls onto the residential rate payers. We’re covering the noise, and the water study would give us a lot more information and Planning and Zoning suggested that,” she said.
Cobler said the proposed ordinance also included provisions that would require companies to provide their own electricity and pay their own electric bills, as well as environmental protections and measures to protect farmland and Henry County’s rural character.
“That was big for me too, and that was one reason that as a group, I made the motion,” which allows the board to discuss the issue. “We talked about it, is because as a rural community we are balancing between growing economically and still protecting our rural character, so we really need to talk about that a little bit more,” she said.
Cobler said she was not ready to make a motion to approve the proposed ordinance at the July 28 meeting after hearing from constituents.
“For me, I did not feel like I had enough information to make a motion or a vote if it was going to go that way. So we made a different type of motion to just pull the data center stuff out of there so we could digest, absorb, consider everything that was talked about and discussed at the meeting.
“I had already decided that I was not ready, and the other members sort of knew that I was not ready, and that I was going to possibly present a motion to table the data center information to just give us more time and more information and to hear more from the constituents,” Cobler said.
While removing the data center provisions leaves the county without specific protections against potential data centers, Cobler said she does not believe one will locate in the county within the next two months.
“I mean realistically, that’s not going to happen in two months. I was just asking for more time and more information and to hear more from the constituents,” she said.
Noting that the board is still being educated about data centers, Chris Lawless, of the Collinsville District, said the proposed ordinance was preliminary and intended to ensure the county had something in place.
“Apparently the public wanted stricter guidelines, and that’s one of the things that we’re hoping to see in the future. I know myself, I do chiller units, which circulate water without using fresh water,” he said.
Lawless said he would like data centers to be required to not use county water and to have their own power sources so they do not use Henry County’s electric grid and potentially increase residents’ power bills.
“I know some people’s just going to say, ‘you should just ban them all together,’ but to me if you reach all of the criteria that the public’s asking for and you’re not pulling on our resources, I don’t see why not,” he said.
Lawless said there are no data centers currently on the horizon.
Regarding the July 28 meeting, Lawless said he believes the board should have approved the proposed data center ordinance to ensure the county had some protections in place.
“Then, we would have went ahead and added to it so we have some type of protection, because as of right now, we have absolutely zero protection against the data centers. A company could come in, buy the shell building over at the Patriot Centre, say they’re going to use it for a warehouse, and turn it into a data center, and there’s nothing we can do right now because we have absolutely zero provisions in place,” Lawless said.
Lawless said he thinks a lot of people “were either misled or uneducated about what we were trying to do at that meeting.
“I was trying to explain it to people, but people just got in an uproar and was already mad and telling me ‘well, you’re brainwashed, they done sold you out,’ and it’s like no they ain’t. We were trying to put some rules in place,” he said.
Caption:
Several of the residents attending the July 28 Henry County Board of Supervisors meeting expressed concerns about data centers, and some opposed them entirely.
