Stafford approves data center campus the size of a 'little city'
Stafford County approved the necessary rezoning and Comprehensive Plan changes this week for the Stafford Technology Campus, a 262-acre "little city" comprised of 23 data center buildings and six electric substations.
Meg Bohmke, chair of the Stafford Board of Supervisors, borrowed a phrase from another county official in comparing the project, off Eskimo Hill Road in the Falmouth District, to a small city.
Under the plan, the property will be divided into four sections, with four to seven centers per block, and total 5.8 million square feet of data center space at buildout. The buildings could be as tall as 105 feet — 40 feet higher than Stafford's current limit of 65 feet.
Charlie Payne, lawyer for the applicant, Stafford Technology LC, didn't think there was anything little about the plan.
"This is the largest economic development project in the history of Stafford County," he told the supervisors on Tuesday.
At full buildout, the 23 data centers would generate about $127 million annually in tax revenue to the county, Payne said. Typically, the bulk of commercial taxes comes from the real estate, but that's reversed with data centers "because of the value of computer equipment" housed within, Commissioner of Revenue Scott Mayausky told the supervisors.
To make way for the Stafford Technology Campus, the board changed the future land-use designation in the Comprehensive Plan for two parcels off Eskimo Hill Road, which total more than 503 acres. Higher density commercial development will be allowed there, and the zoning classification will shift to heavy industrial.
The board has been dealing with the issue of data centers since February 2023 and laying the necessary groundwork to determine where and how the facilities might work in the county. At community meetings — and during the public hearing on Tuesday — residents expressed some of the concerns associated with data centers, including noise, water usage and the drain on the electrical grid.
Others have asked the supervisors to put data centers in suitable places, not in the middle of densely populated neighborhoods, which has caused problems in Northern Virginia.
"It's a prime data center site for this county," Payne said about the property, which currently is undeveloped, wooded land near an electrical transmission corridor. "Our neighbors are the landfill, a former penitentiary and the sheriff's shooting range."
Payne represents Amazon Data Services on other data center projects in the Fredericksburg region, but said that the end-user of the Stafford Technology Center has not been named, due to a nondisclosure agreement.
Amazon would seem a logical choice. It's building the Potomac Church Tech Center on 50 acres north of the Eskimo Hill site, off Old Potomac Church Road near Stafford Hospital.
In July, the Stafford board approved an agreement in which Amazon will foot the bill — $150 million — to build a water reuse facility and construct a distribution system at the Aquia Wastewater Treatment Facility in North Stafford.
Amazon will reuse treated wastewater from Aquia, shipping it from the newly constructed facility to cool data center buildings at the Potomac Church site. It agreed to make the necessary design changes so reused water can be supplied to future data center sites, including the Stafford Technology Campus.
Supervisor Crystal Vanuch expressed concern about water usage as described in a proffer for the Stafford Technology Campus. It stated Stafford would provide potable water to the data centers until it was using 1 million gallons a day or six centers were built, whichever came first.
Then, it would switch to the reuse system. If the system wasn't built by the end of 2028, the applicant would undertake "reasonable good faith efforts" to assume the responsibility of building it, according to the proffers.
Vanuch pointed out that the county, legally, couldn't turn off water it was supplying to the data centers, if the reuse water system wasn't built as planned. And that wasn't what she had agreed to — and it's why she cast the lone dissenting vote against the land-use and rezoning changes needed for the campus.
"That was never the board's intent to give data centers access to the county's drinking water in perpetuity," she said.
Payne responded that she wasn't accurately describing the situation, and that the Board of Supervisors ultimately had the final say in determining its water service agreement with the applicant. That agreement hasn't been put together yet, but has to be in place before a certificate of occupancy is issued for the first building, he said.
Supervisor Vice Chair Tinesha Allen asked about projected timelines for the water reuse system. Payne said the design is underway with groundbreaking estimated for July 2025 and completion by January 2028.
Then, Allen seemingly connected Amazon to both data center projects that would be served by reused water.
The Stafford Technology Campus site "is being used by the ... very tenant that is in charge of constructing the water reuse system," Allen said. "To think that they would invest so much money to build it and then not use something they built to me seems very, very hard to comprehend. Why would they build it or invest the funds to build it and then not tap into it for this site?"
Also during the meeting, several board members played what Supervisor Monica Gary characterized as "the Jeopardy! game," asking questions to which they already knew the answers.
For instance, Bohmke asked Mike Morris, Stafford's deputy county administrator, about infrastructure the applicant would build and to explain the details to the public. He said Stafford Technology will invest $58.6 million in a "bridging system" that will connect water sources from Lake Mooney in the south to Smith Lake in the north to provide water at the campus — and for other developments in the area.
The county's utility department had planned to build such a system in the years to come but the applicant will be able to do it sooner, Morris said.
"Are there any other benefits to the county of having them build this infrastructure?" Bohmke asked.
"The time and obviously the money are the primary two things," Morris said.
Bohmke also asked Payne if the applicant would proffer land for a fire and rescue station on the property, given the size of the data center "city." That question also had been discussed at recent meetings.
Payne said the applicant would designate 3 or 4 acres off nearby State Shop Road for a new station. That proffer was added to the amendments before the supervisors took their vote.
Gary said she could play the question game as well and asked Andrea Light, director of Stafford's budget and management department, to the podium. She asked her a question they had discussed ahead of time: what does $127 million — the expected annual revenue from the data center project at build-out — equate to in terms of the impact on taxes?
"Approximately 45 cents on the current tax rate," Light said.
Cathy Dyson: (540) 374-5425
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