Data center restrictions tracker · Virginia

Prince William County, Virginia: data center zoning exclusion (2026)

Data snapshot 2026-08-15 · part of Pricing the Fear of Data Centers

Prince William County, Virginia, adopted a data-center zoning exclusion on March 4, 2026. Its status in this snapshot is enacted.

Prince William County, Virginia, adopted a data-center zoning exclusion on January 8, 2025. Its status in this snapshot is pending.

The records read: "The Prince William County Board of Supervisors voted 4-3 to approve a 571,000-square-foot data center on a 40-acre site along Prince William Parkway near Hornbaker Road. Simultaneously, the board voted 6-0 to initiate a zoning text… (datacentertracker.org)." "Amazon proposed three 110-foot-tall data center buildings totaling nearly 1.1 million sq ft on 52 acres along Ashton Avenue near Manassas Mall, sandwiched between three schools and a townhome development. The Prince William County… (datacentertracker.org)."

Details

ActionClassStatusDateMW thresholdScopeSource
Zoning exclusionrestrictionenactedMarch 4, 2026county-widedatacentertracker.org
Zoning exclusionrestrictionpendingJanuary 8, 2025county-widedatacentertracker.org

Jurisdiction type: county. County: Manassas city. Dataset: datacentertracker. Snapshot August 15, 2026; documented actions, not a census.

Virginia context

Virginia has 29 documented local actions across 27 jurisdictions in this snapshot. At the state level, the state has a tax action (enacted, June 30, 2026), the state has a ratepayer-protection law (enacted), Dominion Energy territory has a large-load tariff (enacted, July 31, 2026), and Dominion Energy (GS-5) territory has a large-load tariff (enacted, November 25, 2025).

A town that says no to a data center gives up local tax revenue, not jobs: one large campus pays $2M to $90M a year depending on the tax regime, against roughly 50 permanent jobs. The parent piece prices it and lists the conditions that beat a ban.

Sources

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