The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors will not take up a proposed pause on data center and substation applications at its Oct. 20 business meeting, the county announced on Oct. 20, 2026. Discussion of the item has been deferred to the Board's Nov. 17 meeting, its second business meeting in November. The county said the delay will give staff additional time to develop more information to help inform the Board's ultimate decision. The measure remains a proposal; the Board has not acted on it.

The item is agenda item 14p, "Resolution to Pause Board of Supervisors Consideration of Legislative Applications for Data Centers and Substations" (eScribe item 2756). If approved, it would pause the Board's action on data center and electrical substation applications that require legislative approval for up to 12 months, which the county describes as the maximum allowed by Virginia law. Residents who signed up to speak on the item may still do so at the Oct. 20 meeting, and members of the public may also comment at a future meeting, the county said.

A Pause, Not a Moratorium

The proposal is framed as a pause on the Board's own action on applications rather than a ban on approvals. According to the county, the Board's Sept. 15 vote to consider such a resolution followed a legal opinion from the Loudoun County Attorney indicating that a moratorium on data center approvals is not legal. At that meeting, a majority of supervisors voted in favor of future consideration of the resolution.

A September county release sets out how the pause would work:

  • Retroactive start. The Board indicated the resolution should be retroactive, making the pause effective Sept. 15, 2026.
  • Per-application clock. Under the county's zoning ordinance, the one-year period for each application starts when it is sent to a Planning Commission public hearing.
  • Review continues. Developers could keep submitting applications, and those applications could move through the Planning Commission process during the pause. Applications handled through administrative processes would not be affected.
  • Exceptions. The Board may consider exceptions for applications that involve grid reliability or when the statutory period for a decision is about to expire.
  • No lapsed applications. The release states, "The pause would not cause any applications to become inactive."

The pause applies to applications that require legislative approval, and an earlier Board decision put every data center project in that group. Loudoun previously ended by-right data center development, so all data center projects now require a Board vote through the special exception process, according to the September release.

Tied to the Standards Rewrite

The county says the reason for considering the pause is to allow time to complete its ongoing review of data center policies and regulations. That project proposes amendments to the county's Comprehensive Plan (CPAM) and Zoning Ordinance (ZOAM) covering data center standards and locations. The county said the outcome of the CPAM and ZOAM project "has the potential to impact existing and new legislative applications for data centers." The review is expected to wrap up in summer 2027.

The Grandfathering Question

The September release said the Board planned to consider amendments to its data center grandfathering rules on Oct. 6. At that meeting, county officials warned that rescinding grandfathering protections could expose Loudoun to roughly $60 million in potential litigation costs, Data Center Frontier reported. The publication said a 2025 grandfathering resolution covers at least 15 pending applications totaling about 10.5 million square feet. Supervisors considered an independent audit of those projects, estimated at up to $200,000, but indefinitely tabled it on a 7–2 vote, leaving the grandfathering resolution in place.

The Oct. 6 meeting also addressed Amazon's plans for the 122-acre former George Washington University campus in Ashburn. Amazon submitted plans in July for more than 800,000 square feet of data centers on the property, according to Data Center Frontier. Because the site is in the Route 28 Tax District, older zoning rules apply, and the county's zoning administrator ruled in July that "the applicable 1972 ordinance does not permit data centers as a principal use." Officials reaffirmed that ruling on Oct. 6, so Amazon needs Board approval to proceed, the publication reported.

Regional Context

Other Northern Virginia counties made data center land-use decisions this fall, according to Data Center Frontier. On Sept. 22, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors shrank its Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District from roughly 9,700 acres to about 3,641 acres, making a special-use permit the main path for approval outside the overlay. On Oct. 7, Stafford County supervisors voted 4–3 to approve the rezoning and an associated electrical-substation permit for Falmouth Tech LLC's Accokeek Center, a two-building campus of about 590,000 square feet on 121 acres.

What Happens Next

The Board is scheduled to discuss the pause resolution, agenda item 14p, at its Nov. 17, 2026 business meeting. The pause would not take effect unless the Board adopts the resolution. Members of the public who want to comment can sign up in advance at loudoun.gov/SignUpToSpeak, and the county publishes Board meeting documents at loudoun.gov/meetings at least three days before each meeting.

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