Planning puzzle

continued from page 1 business in zoning districts that permit data centers.

And still the industry’s growth continues. Despite a pandemic-era slowdown attributable to supply chain problems, and uncertainty brought on by shortcomings in Dominion Energy’s grid, Department of Economic Development Executive Director Buddy Rizer reported roughly $8 billion in investment from data center companies attracted in fiscal year 2023.

For Loudoun County, that has meant a balancing act on both the government budget and the industry’s hunger for more land.

Smoothing the Bumps

The Board of Supervisors’ finance committee on Tuesday heard a proposal by county staff to establish a revenue stabilization fund to further insulate the county’s budget from dips in the data center market, possibly setting aside more than $100 million. It would be the latest in a series of measures the county government has taken to wean its dependency on data center taxes.

“The growth and when it will appear has been difficult to forecast,” Office of Management and Budget Director Meagan Cox said. “Even though we’ve missed those revenue forecasts, the revenue line has continued to grow year over year, but because we only have one datapoint a year, we have a very difficult time understanding when it’s going to come in. And the growth of that specific line item has reached a point where a miss in that forecast has significant impacts on the [county] operations.”

County budget officers pointed out those property taxes, such as on data center computer equipment, tend to be much more volatile than real estate taxes—while real estate generally grows in value over time, computer equipment depreciates quickly, with the growth in those revenues linked to frequent upgrades and the industry’s constant expansion. And unlike real estate, business and personal property can be packed into a truck and leave the county.

The revenue stabilization fund, an additional buffer beyond the county’s existing reserves, would give supervisors a way to fill the gap if those revenues fall short of projections in the future. But Supervisor Matthew F. Letourneau (R-Dulles) said building that fund will take political will.

“We’ve go to build it first, which I think capacity shortage.

The closely divided June vote, and a Board of Supervisors debate July 5 on opening a development rights marketplace to draw data centers away from Rt. 7, showed there is no clear consensus on the county board on how to steer or curb the industry’s sprawl.

Supervisor Michael R. Turner (D-Ashburn) proposed looking to transfer of development rights, a program that would allow landowners to sell the development rights from their land to developers elsewhere in the county. The county government would determine sending areas, where those rights can be sold to, and receiving areas where they can be bought and used. It’s an idea long talked about but never implemented in Loudoun.

“The power lines on Rt. 7, I think we just all have to admit that they’re going to go there, because we don’t have any authority over Dominion. They have to pass this thing by the [State Corporation Commission] and that’s pretty much it,” she said. “We can kick and scream, our residents can kick and scream and say they don’t like it and try to encourage them to bury those power lines, but those power lines are solving what already is a power constraint problem.” is going to be the hard part, because we have to show constraint,” he said. “In reality, in a real budget scenario, there will be things that will be proposed to us, or that we will be asked for, that we can’t fund in the budget, and we’re going to have this chunk of money sitting there and we’re going to have to make a decision not to use it. And that is where the rubber will meet the road.”

Supervisor Matthew F. Letourneau (R-Dulles) said the program wouldn’t be a good solution for data center development.

County budget staff members will continue to develop the proposal for a revenue stabilization fund, aiming to have a new policy in place by this winter in time for annual year-end fund balance talks.

Steering the Sprawl

County supervisors are more divided on how to control the industry’s spread into new parts of the county. And even while finishing the years-long overhaul of county zoning, they will likely immediately reopen the books to amend the rules around data centers.

In June, supervisors narrowly voted to rush an amendment to the comprehensive plan outlining design standards and where data centers should be permitted, even if that may mean delaying work on the rest of the zoning ordinance. And the Planning Commission handed up a draft of the zoning ordinance while continuing talks on possible new environmental policies around data centers.

In particular, current zoning allows data center development by-right in areas of the Rt. 7 corridor, something supervisors have hoped to avoid. But with data center alley in Ashburn filling up, the industry is now looking to expand into other parts of the county.

Elsewhere, it’s been used to protect rural land from development, such as by allowing farmers to profit from the development potential of their land while also preventing future development on that land, and allowing developers additional development density by-right, by buying those rights rather than applying for a zoning exception or rezoning. But some supervisors have argued it would saddle eastern Loudouners with more traffic and development to benefit western Loudouners.

“We agree we’re not going to help the west by hurting the east. That’s not going to happen,” Turner said July 5. “However, if you look into an east-to-east transfer, there is also the possibility of a fairly radically revised TDR program whereby areas that are developing data centers in the east could purchase development rights somewhere else in the east to cause them not to develop where we don’t want them, and develop where we can tolerate them.”

For example, he said, the board could designate the Rt. 7 corridor as a development rights sending area, incentivizing landowners to sell off the development rights there rather than build. Some supervisors said it was worth a look.

But with the county planning department already at capacity, that market study and analysis would have to either wait, possibly for years, or push back the schedule for another project.

Supervisor Juli E. Briskman (D-Algonkian) said that study should not be done at the expense of delaying other work, including a separate project to update the county comprehensive plan’s guidance on where data centers are permitted. And she said Rt. 7 data centers—and more specifically, the high-voltage power lines to power them—are as good as done. Dominion has proposed new high-voltage power lines along Rt. 7 to fix their grid’s

“The problem with the TDR discussion as it relates to data centers is, I can’t think of a single scenario in which we are better off with a by-right data center in any situation,” Letourneau said. “Because anytime a data center has to go through a rezoning, whether it’s a location that’s favorable or not, the board is able to work on that application and improve it.”

But the biggest hitch may be where to send those development rights once they’re sold. Turner proposed targeting the Dulles Cloud South, an undeveloped area of southeastern Loudoun which the county Department of Economic Development proposed opening up to data center development. Supervisors previously voted not to allow data centers there, citing environmental impacts and concerns over allowing industrial development in the county’s Transition Policy Area, which designed to provide a buffer between rural and developed areas.

“I was going to be supportive of this motion tonight until Supervisor Turner talked me out of it by mentioning again the Dulles [Cloud South],” Supervisor Tony R. Buffington (R-Blue Ridge) said, adding “if it was up to me, we would never discuss the idea of Dulles Cloud South again. We’d go back and erase any memories anybody has of it ever being discussed, and we’d delete it from everything wherever it’s written.”

Despite offers from Turner to place the study at the back of the department’s work plan, and insistence that he mentioned Dulles Cloud South as an example and not a proposal, supervisors voted down that study 3-5-1, with only Turner, Kershner and Supervisor Kristen C. Umstattd (D-Leesburg) in favor; Briskman, Buffington, Letourneau, Supervisor Sylvia R. Glass (D-Broad Run) and Vice Chair Koran T. Saines (D-Sterling) opposed; and County Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) absent. n

15

Published

NORMAN K. STYER Publisher and Editor nstyer@loudounnow.com

207

Decades after Frank Wolf helped wrestle control of National and Dulles airports out of the hands of politicians with the creation of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority in 1987, the airports’ professional administrators again are battling meddling from Capitol Hill.

RENSS GREENE Deputy Editor rgreene@loudounnow.com

ALEXIS GUSTIN Reporter agustin@loudounnow.com

HANNA PAMPALONI Reporter hpampaloni@loudounnow.com appear benign, but they risk undermining the symbiotic balance that has proven critical to the success of both airports—and the growth of our region.

EDITORIAL

Fights over the perimeter rule and flight slot counts at Reagan National Airport now seemingly come twice each decade, with senators or representatives working to slip changes into the FAA reauthorization bill to benefit a back-home business or to make their cross-country commutes a bit shorter.

Individually, the gradual exceptions to the long-standing operational rules may

SUSAN STYER Advertising Manager sstyer@loudounnow.com

TONYA HARDING Account Executive tharding@loudounnow.com

When airport leaders raise concerns about a push to alter their policies, their objections should carry weight. It is their primary responsibility, after all, to maximize the efficiency of their operations while accommodating the needs of the airlines and the customers they serve.

One need look no further than the airport noise challenges now being raised by the closein new neighbors to Dulles Airport to see the consequences of putting political interests over the recommendations of the airport operators. n

ADVERTISING always at LoudounNow.com

Editor:

In the July 6 edition of Loudoun Now an article appeared under the headline “890 incidents of hate speech, racial slurs at schools last year.” This cold fact as presented seems like a harsh criticism of our Loudoun student body.

Opinion Online

All can agree that hate speech is unacceptable in the schools and workplaces of Loudoun County. But before we give the impression that our students are racist and out of control it might be useful to provide some context.

There are 83,000 students in Loudoun Schools each attending for 180 days and allowing for absences we are talking about 14 million student days at our 99 schools. Against this background, 890 incidents of hate speech are a minuscule amount of students and incidents, and probably reflects views they learned from their parents.

Absolutely the schools need a firm response to hate speech and those students who practice it should be held to account. But it is equally important to recognize the vast majority of our students and their parents have moved beyond this sort of mindless prejudice.

As someone, now 90, I have lived through the really dark days of racial prejudice. So it moves me to speak out when I feel, not all, but most of the general population has moved on, yet little recognition of this is shown in today’s commentary.

While much remains to be done, it is not wrong to praise how far we have come on matters of race, women’s equality, and the LGBT community.

— Al Van Huyck, Round Hill

Cultural Shift

Editor:

With the establishment of the Advanced Placement African American Studies course, a new opportunity has arisen to further educate the community regarding the inequality African

Americans have faced and continue to face in the modern world.

Although it is imperative that the curriculum for this course is adopted by every state as it could prove to facilitate meaningful conversations and promote awareness regarding the inequality the race faces, it would only be effective if the course does not actively encourage or further spread the damaging ideals of racism.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR continues on page 35 course is serving as a barrier towards complete equality and only further feeding into the everlasting cycle of inequality that African Americans have faced.

Although the original curriculum published for this course covered a broader range of topics, the College Board decided to alter the lessons to accommodate every state’s laws and opinions. While there had been a mass agreement between the nation to maintain the curriculum established, Florida and its “Stop the Woke Act” proved to be a significant obstacle toward racial equality. The act supports ideals that revolve around restricting certain topics from being taught as its supporters believe that the idea of racism is not merely the product of individual bias but rather something that is embedded through daily altercations and public policies (Vilei). Although the act is still a proposal, Florida has used its ideals to repel the AP African American History Studies course and call for immediate change regarding the curriculum, explaining that certain topics should not be covered in order to prevent the continuation of racial inequality.

Florida Gov. DeSantis argues that the course is part of a political agenda that is indicated by the inclusion of queer theory, the study of how gender, sexuality, and identity intersect with other forms of oppression. However, it is clear that queer black individuals also faced discrimination and it is crucial that they are represented throughout the curriculum as well. Promoting racial awareness through education has proven to be positively impactful towards progressing as a society. While it is important to cover as much area as possible when discussing racial inequality, it is also vital that the curriculum is thoroughly developed and contributes towards the removal of any racial prejudice within this nation. As the AP African American History course is finalized, it will prove to not only dissolve any offensive and unnecessary stereotypes but also allow for a necessary and impactful cultural shift between the younger generations of society.

— Taran Srikonda, Chantilly

Addressing the Crisis

Editor:

Recently, CIA Director William

J. Burns wrote, in an opinion for the Washington Post, that the number two threat to the United States, after China and Russia, was “problems without passports.” He was referring to borderless problems such as pandemics and the climate crisis.

The CIA director has named the climate crisis as the number two threat to the United States. Global warming is, as the military says, a “threat multiplier” and the CIA director is echoing that threat. We must do what we can as citizens to address this threat, for the good of all of our children, grandchildren and all life on Earth.

I do have hope. For example, good things happen for citizens, the climate, and biodiversity when elected officials work on behalf of their constituent’s well-being. Hope is what I felt when I read that the 10th District’s Rep. Jennifer Wexton had announced a $13.9M federal grant awarded to Loudoun County to upgrade Loudoun Transit buses to low-or-no emission vehicles. The grant money comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and awarded through the U.S. Federal Transit Administration. This Green Transit grant is an example of our elected congressional representatives working together for the people. Bipartisan climate action at the federal level is happening; our children and grandchildren will be the beneficiaries.

At the local level, this grant will support Loudoun County in achieving the goals of the Loudoun County Environmental and Energy Strategy. One of those important goals is to reduce transportation greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in county government operations. County government estimates that use of these new 37 compressed natural gas buses will result in an annual reduction of 447.5 metric tons of greenhouse gases. This equates to the following: 98 gasoline vehicles removed from the roads; 180 tons of waste recycled; 3.1 acres of U.S. forest preserved; 7,459 trees planted.

Trees play an important role in sequestering carbon dioxide. For example, the Arbor Day Foundation says that in one year a mature tree will absorb more than 48 pounds of carbon dioxide while also releasing oxygen.

Global warming drives climate change. Climate change is providing multiple symptoms of global warming such as breaking temperature records all over the country, along with record amounts of rain. Our atmosphere is being poisoned by the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Our atmosphere is sick. We must do everything we can to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Rep. Jennifer Wexton aided Loudoun County in receiving a $13.9 million green transportation grant that will reduce the county’s carbon footprint. We need to applaud this; thank you Rep. Wexton. Thank you, Loudoun County Board of Supervisors for your readiness to receive the grant.

— Rev. Dr. Jean Wright, Co-Founder Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions/ Loudoun County Hub Lead