CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — Chesapeake City Council voted Tuesday night to restrict where data centers can go in the city.
Chesapeake City Council votes to pause data center applications
Before things got started, several residents, plus one donkey, made their voices heard by protesting outside of city hall with a clear message: no data centers in Chesapeake.
"We don't want them here," said resident Jeff Staples. "They take up too much electricity, too much water, and they pollute and they make a lot of noise."
The ordinance that was proposed would have amended city code to designate data centers as a conditional use in certain zoning districts and the Fentress Airfield overlay district if certain requirements are met.
The overall goal was to ban data center developers' by-right option in the city.
But many residents spoke in opposition to this, calling for the city to just ban data centers all together. Many also cited concerns about the ordinance potentially allowing data centers to be built in the Fentress area.
"How many times do the residents of this town have to tell you? We do not want this. We don't want them in the woods. We don't want them in Fentress. I don't want them anywhere in this country," one resident said during public comment.
After hearing this from residents, Councilwoman Amanda Newins proposed some changes.
The newly-proposed ordinance still included eliminating the by-right rule and the restriction to certain areas, but it took out Fentress Overlay and added a provision that potential data centers cannot connect to groundwater, which Newins said would limit use from the Williams Farm in southern Chesapeake.
There was already an eight-month pause on data centers in the city so council could gather community input, so Newins explained that with this newly-approved ordinance, no data center applications can come before council until early next year.
"This gives us the opportunity to put a pause," Newins said. "We protect ourselves from by-right data center uses, so the data centers just coming on their own without any city input or any infrastructure consideration, ... now we have time to meet with the community and really develop things that the community may think are appropriate or not appropriate."
Council also asked the question to Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones on whether localities can just outright ban data centers. Newins said this is something they hope to get answered as they continue handling this topic.
Residents like Staples are happy with Tuesday night's outcome but would still like to see more done.
"They gave an exclusion for one area of the city," Staples said. "I'd like to see it include all of it. But we'll take this tonight and use that to build on."
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