Definition of Data Center Goes Forward at Town Planning Commission Work Session

One might ask: What just happened?

The past year has been a data center blur with significant milestones for this hotly contested issue. It seems to surpass even the content issues at Samuels Public Library in the level of passion it inspires, because a technological behemoth that places a high demand on utilities, generates noise pollution, and will likely become obsolete in 5 to 10 years, is more obviously an existential threat.

The Town Planning Commission met for a regular meeting on July 15. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh

What is remarkable is the unified voice heard in public presentations and hearings at government meetings related to data centers. People who might disagree about an issue like library content are coming together to register a firm “no” to the possibility of a data center being installed in Front Royal or Warren County.

Deputy Zoning Administrator John Ware presented two items for public hearing to the commissioners

That initial question – what just happened – captures a year of ongoing action. In the latter half of 2025, the Town Planning Commission delivered a product to the Town Council, featuring a definition of “data center” and performance standards that would restrict such development in the town by special-use permit. The council’s initial response ranged from negative to lukewarm. Some felt the performance standards could be stronger, while others favored prohibition. The matter was delayed. When it resurfaced for consideration in 2026, an exchange between council members and legal counsel implied the tip of an iceberg in what was transpiring publicly and what had transpired in closed meetings. The question seemed to be: what is the council permitted to do?

(Above and below): Bret Hrbek of Rotary and Cathy Wolfe of Blue Ridge Opportunities speak in favor of a proposed exterior mural to exceed sixty square feet.

Whether one falls on the side of the Dillon Rule argument or the argument based on Virginia code section 15.2 2280 that a locality is indeed permitted to prohibit a use, it is now a fact that the Town is en route to defining and prohibiting data centers. At a highly attended June 22 meeting of the Town Council, the public servants rejected the performance standards and tasked the commission with arranging language for a prohibition while defining “data center” versus “technology”. The council’s subsequent administrative action at a work session to place a moratorium on data center applications has raised questions on social media about whether such a moratorium is valid. Nevertheless, the language is going forward, as the commission executes the task.

At a July 15 work session following a regular meeting, the commissioners voted to accept a text with definitions and prohibition language that has been developed over the time elapsed since the council meeting. It uses at or above 500 kilowatts, in tandem with computing infrastructure, at a certain floor space, as a barometer for determining whether a facility should be defined as a data center. The language allows for “robust” power infrastructure when a commercial or industrial facility is delivering “tangible goods”, not to be construed as a data center. The language otherwise avoids including ancillary uses that might be found at a hospital, office, or other establishment that does not primarily deliver a computing product