{"id":23813,"date":"2026-05-01T00:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/23813\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T00:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:33:09","slug":"chesapeake-considering-tax-rate-increase-zoning-changes-for-future-data-center-projects-the-virginian-pilot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/23813\/","title":{"rendered":"Chesapeake considering tax rate increase, zoning changes for future data center projects \u2013 The Virginian-Pilot"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHESAPEAKE \u2014 Nearly a year after Chesapeake City Council rejected a controversial proposed data center project, leaders are mulling over changes to accommodate them in the future.<\/p>\n

After a visit to Prince William County for a tour of other data centers in February, city staff and council members are considering zoning and policy changes that would serve as new guardrails and oversight for future data center proposals. That would include requiring conditional use permits and raising the equipment tax rate to remain competitive in a state that touts the most data centers in the nation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Data centers are physical facilities that house computers, servers and other networking equipment to process and distribute data. Demand has heightened in recent years due to the rapid growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Chesapeake City Manager Chris Price said in an April council meeting that taking these steps allows Chesapeake to beef up its economic development portfolio.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, we\u2019ve been so heavily dependent on the military and certain things associated with the Port of Virginia. We\u2019ve really diversified over time,\u201d Price said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the reasons why the region and Chesapeake have chosen to build a fiber optic network<\/a> around the region, around the city, to attract data centers. Of course, that\u2019s helping to leverage the power of those subsea cables, but also just to become bigger players in the information technology space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed project that failed last June<\/a> would have been the first of its kind in Hampton Roads.\u00a0 Local developer Doug Fuller requested a rezoning of 22.6 acres of agricultural land to light industrial to construct a 350,000-square-foot facility dubbed the Etheridge Lakes Data Center. Residents rallied against the project at the time, citing health concerns, proximity to residential neighborhoods, lack of transparency, environmental impacts and a strain on city resources and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Data centers are a \u201cby-right\u201d land use in Chesapeake, meaning developers aren\u2019t required to seek an endorsement from the Planning Commission or approval by the City Council. In an April 21 briefing, city staff suggested council require conditional use permits for future data center projects only in industrial-zoned areas and the Fentress Airfield Overlay area. The conditional use permit process also entails mitigation assessments to determine how the proposed project would impact local schools, infrastructure and public safety resources.<\/p>\n

City staff\u2019s recommendation is to keep data centers a by-right land use for the industrial megasite Coastal Virginia Commerce Park<\/a>, a 1,400-acre tract of farmland that straddles the North Carolina border in southern Chesapeake.<\/p>\n

Another recommendation is to change the tax rate on data centers to remain competitive. City staff propose raising the current rate of $0.40 per $100 of assessed value to $2, which they say is lower than the state average of $3.09 and $1 less than other Virginia localities.<\/p>\n

Chesapeake has formed a data center committee that has met a few times to vet a variety of issues, including concerns with water use, power supply, noise, public outreach from developers, buffers and setbacks. The committee includes residents and Planning Commission members as well as representatives from Dominion Energy, the Chesapeake Alliance and the South Side Network Authority.<\/p>\n

The committee is reviewing \u201cextensive\u201d stakeholder input that will be considered in a new policy city staff is drafting for council\u2019s consideration. It\u2019s not clear when the draft policy will be presented for a public hearing and vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost data centers are going where the power is located,\u201d said Chesapeake Economic Development Director Steven Wright. \u201cAnd because there is limited power in Northern Virginia, they\u2019re starting to look south into Central Virginia and, yes, even into Chesapeake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chesapeake isn\u2019t the only city in the region considering changes to welcome future data centers. For local governments, attracting data centers to their municipalities can mean a financial benefit. Hampton, which took a similar trip to Prince William County in April, is actively exploring options to attract data center development, which could also include updating its zoning codes.\u00a0City Manager Mary Bunting said at an April meeting that Hampton\u2019s zoning code doesn\u2019t address data centers.<\/p>\n

Chesapeake city staff say they\u2019re looking at other localities to model ordinance language, including Loudoun and Fairfax counties.<\/p>\n

Staff writer Devlin Epding contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHESAPEAKE \u2014 Nearly a year after Chesapeake City Council rejected a controversial proposed data center project, leaders are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,2853,774,66,464,16272,16271],"class_list":{"0":"post-23813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-virginia-news","15":"tag-virginia-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}