Revamped proposal pitched for Iron Horse data center project’s Hanover side

WestDulles Properties has filed a new zoning request to allow construction of the Hanover-based portion of its Iron Horse data center project. Pictured is an elevation included in the application. (County documents)

After getting approval from Ashland but denied by Hanover for a data center campus that would straddle the town-and-county line, the project’s developer is back with a tweaked proposal.

Reston-based WestDulles Properties last month filed a new zoning application for the Hanover side of its proposed Iron Horse project, which would be built on a 180-acre site that’s split by the boundary between the county and town.

The request to rezone 78 acres at 10171 E. Patrick Henry Road in Hanover, near the I-95 interchange, comes as the latest push by WestDulles to move forward with the project after mixed success in rezoning the overall site last year. While the developer was able to get Ashland Town Council to approve the project’s portion within the town limits, the Hanover Board of Supervisors voted down a concurrent zoning request for the section of the project in the county.

The newly revised Hanover portion would feature buildings no higher than 75 feet tall. The previous project proposal sought approval for buildings as tall as 110 feet, which is the upper limit that Ashland approved for its side of the project.

WestDulles CEO Eric Wells said the decision to float shorter buildings came in response to criticisms of last year’s proposal, which caught flak from county supervisors for its height.

“There was a lot of community resistance, which became political resistance, to the special exception to go up to 110 feet. We agreed to limit it to 75 feet,” Wells said in an interview last week.

WestDulles has also axed plans for a 49-lot residential section on a nearby 44-acre property on Mount Hermon Road, which was part of last year’s rezoning proposal but is no longer being pursued.

“There was a lot of local resistance to any development on Mount Hermon Road. Although our previous application reduced the amount of development, it was still development,” Wells said.

After securing zoning approval for the Ashland portion of the Iron Horse project last year, WestDulles is still seeking approval of the development’s Hanover section, a 76-acre site shown in red.

Filings made to the county as of last week didn’t provide details about the potential density of the revamped data center project. Wells said the development’s overall square footage and number of buildings was still to be determined.

Wells said the previous version of the project could have potentially consisted of 2.5 million to 3 million square feet of facilities in 10 to 12 buildings across the entire site.

The newly pitched Hanover-side project would feature minimum buffers of 150 feet and 200-foot setbacks for buildings, which were features of the previous proposal.

Andy Condlin of law firm Roth Jackson is representing WestDulles in the zoning process.

The Iron Horse project hit a snag when Hanover supervisors in December denied the zoning request needed for the project, a decision that followed Ashland’s approval in October. During that meeting, a couple supervisors said they’d be open to a development with shorter buildings.

WestDulles already owns the land in Ashland and Hanover. Construction hasn’t yet started on the Ashland side of the development site.

The Hanover property is currently zoned for mixed-use development, a designation it has held since it was rezoned in 2010 as part of the East Ashland project that never materialized.

Wells said that his firm remains dedicated to a data center project for the site, but could change course if rezoning approval continued to be elusive in Hanover.

“Homebuilders have contacted us about that portion of the property to review and potentially buy. Our first priority is to get the data center zoning approved,” Wells said. “We’re over halfway there with Ashland, and we want to complete what we started.”

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