Chesapeake City Council votes to pause any data center decisions for 8 months
The Chesapeake City Council unanimously voted to implement an eight-month pause on land use applications for data centers. This delay will allow city leaders to draft and enact new ordinances, including requiring conditional use permits for future data center proposals in specific districts. Residents, like Jeff Staples, view the outcome as a mixed result, providing more time for public input on the policy.
The Chesapeake City Council has unanimously approved an eight-month pause on all land use applications related to data centers. This decision, made on Tuesday, aims to give city leaders time to develop new ordinances that would introduce stricter controls over data center development.
While the council did not adopt the Planning Commission's recommendation to limit future data centers exclusively to industrial districts, the city attorney confirmed that state law grants Chesapeake the authority to slow down the application process. Currently, data centers can be considered a "by-right use" in certain office, business, and industrial districts, meaning they often proceed without direct council oversight. The proposed ordinance, expected in August, seeks to close this loophole by requiring all future data center projects in these districts to obtain a conditional use permit, thus bringing them before the city council for approval.
Resident advocate Jeff Staples, who has actively campaigned for stronger restrictions, described the vote as a "mixed result." While he and other residents had hoped for immediate restrictions, the delay offers additional opportunities for public input and engagement in shaping the final policy. City leaders are anticipated to begin addressing the