Planning Commission recommends denial of 700-acre data center project in Chesterfield

Developer Tract is seeking zoning approval for a data center park on more than 700 acres in Chesterfield. The company’s request was recommended for denial by the Planning Commission this week. (BizSense file)

A proposed data center campus in southeast Chesterfield failed to get an endorsement from the county Planning Commission this week.

Denver-based developer Tract is seeking zoning approval of a data center project on more than 700 acres just outside Colonial Heights. The assemblage includes 16100 Branders Bridge Road and multiple other parcels.

Planning commissioners voted unanimously to recommend that the project be denied by the Board of Supervisors, which is anticipated to provide a final verdict on the zoning request at a future meeting.

Commissioner Gib Sloan said Tract’s zoning case was generally a strong one and commended the company for its public outreach, but he couldn’t support the project in part because of its traffic impacts.

Sloan, who represents the Bermuda District, where the project is proposed, said the development posed a public safety risk because it would overburden what he considered a poor road. He felt Tract hasn’t done enough to improve transportation infrastructure in the immediate area.

“Inside the property lines, I feel like it’s a good case. Where I have a real challenge is where it’s located,” he said. “The traffic management program is still going to have all the construction coming in on and off of Branders Bridge Road, which by every definition is a substandard road. … The applicant has chosen not to create interconnectivity to help disperse traffic, to get another way in and out.”

The development as presented would have two vehicular access points, both on Branders Bridge Road. The project includes proffered transportation improvements such as new turn lanes and widening on Branders Bridge.

Sloan also said he felt that county officials didn’t have a clear enough picture of how the site would be developed compared with previous requests for similar projects.

Tract’s business model is to acquire land and then handle the construction of infrastructure needed for a data center park. The firm then sells off portions of the site to other companies that build the data center facilities.

Tract has said previously that the project could take the form of up to 11 data center facilities with a total of about 2 million square feet.

“It creates some variables that make things a little bit more challenging,” Sloan said. “In prior data center cases, we had a very good idea. There was a knowledge of who the end user could be, what the square footage on those buildings might be.”

Other commissioners didn’t weigh in publicly on Tract’s proposal during the case hearing Tuesday. County staff recommended that the project be approved, saying the rezoning request is consistent with Chesterfield’s comprehensive plan.

The 744-acre project site is in southeastern Chesterfield near Colonial Heights and would feature three development areas across the property.

Tract wants to zone the project site to General Industrial (I-2) with conditional use planned development. The project would involve the development of about 350 acres of the site, and about 365 acres would be open space, according to a conceptual plan.

The project’s proffered conditions include restricting development on the site to data centers and related accessory facilities.

The applicant has proffered a 725-foot buffer along Branders Bridge Road, a 250-foot buffer on the property’s south and east sides and a 100-foot perimeter buffer on the site’s north edge.

About a dozen people spoke during the public hearing that preceded the commission’s vote, and about half spoke in favor of the project, among them John Martin of RVA757, a nonprofit economic development group.

Martin, the CEO of the organization, said the project would further expand the region’s local digital infrastructure and thereby better support economic development and provide other benefits to people and businesses in the area.

“(Artificial intelligence is) going to make our lives immeasurably improved by thinking about healthcare delivery, or the services your county delivers, or the business efficiencies that are going to come with AI,” Martin said. “But the key to AI is it has to run in real-time applications, … that’s going to require local-edge data centers.”

Critics expressed concerns about the project’s effect on the county’s water supply and how they felt the project would impact the area’s rural character and create more traffic.

Attorney Jeff Geiger of Hirschler, who is representing Tract in the zoning request, said the company has learned from “mistakes” made at data center projects in Northern Virginia, and the Chesterfield project would be subject to strict noise and water-use requirements.

Data center facilities use water for cooling purposes, and the Tract project would use no more than 2,000 gallons of water per day per acre of development. Tract would bear the cost of extending water utilities to the site. The noise from generators at the site would need to be limited to 60 decibels. Building heights would be limited to 110 feet.

The site, currently zoned agricultural, was selected in part because of its proximity to existing electrical infrastructure, Geiger said.

Tract has the 744-acre project site assemblage under contract. The land, located between Branders Bridge Road and Swift Creek, is owned by an LLC tied to Tony Lucas, who owns Shoosmith Construction.

Also among the Tract project’s proffered conditions is an easement to accommodate the Fall Line trail, a pedestrian-and-bike path being established between Ashland and Petersburg, because it runs through the project site.

Last year Tract rezoned and purchased 1,200 acres in Hanover for a data center campus. A company representative said earlier this year that infrastructure and internal access at that site is anticipated to finish in 2026 or 2027.

Tract’s project proposal in Chesterfield is under review as county officials consider new zoning restrictions on future data center projects in an ongoing update to the zoning ordinance. Those proposed changes also follow the county EDA’s successful rezoning last month for sites for data center projects in western Chesterfield.

The post Planning Commission recommends denial of 700-acre data center project in Chesterfield appeared first on Richmond BizSense.