Virginia Beach planners hear briefing on data centers and call for zoning review

Planning staff told the Virginia Beach Planning Commission on April 8 that data centers are an expanding, sometimes opaque development type that the city’s current zoning treats as a generic industrial use.

Zoning administrator Hannah Saba said the city already permits data‑center‑style uses in industrial districts because the zoning ordinance groups them with wholesale, warehousing and distribution. But she warned that recent increases in scale — driven in part by artificial‑intelligence workloads — are producing new impacts that the code does not call out, including steady noise from cooling equipment, generator testing and backup power, substantial electricity demand and occasional elevated water use for some cooling systems.

“Smaller data centers use about the same energy as 60 commercial office buildings,” Saba told commissioners, adding that the largest facilities now proposed nationally can require upgrades to transmission and other infrastructure. She also said air‑pollution rules and DEQ oversight govern generator emissions but that monthly testing and the facilities’ noise footprints can create neighborhood conflicts when sites are near housing.

Commissioners pressed staff about specific mitigation tools other localities have used. Saba summarized common approaches: (1) a required noise study and minimum setback from residences; (2) a data‑center overlay or tiered by‑right rules that scale requirements by megawatt capacity; and (3) use of conditional or special permitting to allow discretionary review, public hearings and tailored conditions. She said Northern Virginia, Prince William and Fairfax County have adopted such measures and that the state Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission’s recent work has prompted some legislative attention across Virginia.

Several commissioners urged quick action so the city is not forced into a last‑minute response if large applications arrive. The commission voted to ask the chair to send a formal briefing and supporting materials — including the JLARC analysis — to city council and to request that council consider directing staff to draft code language or an overlay that would explicitly define and regulate data centers.

What happens next: staff said the zoning ordinance update planned after the comprehensive plan revision is the natural place to add a new, explicit data‑center use and associated standards. Commissioners asked staff and the chair to circulate a concise briefing packet to city council ahead of that multi‑year rewrite and to flag any near‑term policy steps council might want to take sooner.

Quotes

“Data centers are often sited where transmission lines and fiber are available, and as they grow they can require new transmission and create demand pressures,” Hannah Saba said. “We should consider requiring noise studies and clearer siting rules rather than relying on generic industrial zoning.”

Ending

The commission voted unanimously to ask the chair to prepare a letter and materials for city council outlining the briefing and recommending staff and council consider targeted zoning updates for data centers.