On the Ground Updates – June 2025

Posted on by PEC

Albemarle & Charlottesville

  • Planning is underway for the Three Notched Trail, which will eventually connect Charlottesville to Crozet, the Blue Ridge Tunnel and Waynesboro. The process began at PEC’s 5th Annual Active Mobility Summit in March, and now Albemarle County is hosting a series of listening sessions to collect public input and ideas. The plan will include a proposed route, an implementation plan, and a few shovel-ready designs for initial phases that will improve local connectivity.
  • Albemarle County staff have been working on a more comprehensive data center zoning ordinance that addresses noise, water use, and facility siting. This ordinance will build on the initial stopgap Zoning Text Amendment the Board of Supervisors approved requiring a special use permit for data centers over 40,000 square feet in industrial districts. 
  • After nearly four years, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has nearly finished the county’s updated Comprehensive Plan — AC44 — and intends to adopt a completed plan later in 2025. AC44 reflects the growing role of economic development and the diminished role of the Growth Management Policy that directs growth into the Development Areas to protect the communities and resources in the Rural Area. 

Clarke

  • The Planning Commission brought draft ordinance language for the new Double Tollgate Light Industrial District for public comment in April. PEC’s Tia Earman, the only speaker, spoke in favor of the smart growth approach the county has taken and made several specific recommendations which the commission accepted. The commission unanimously approved the new language and will pass it to the Board of Supervisors for final adoption. 
  • This spring, the county’s Planning and Zoning staff held three community meetings to gather input on the upcoming historic village area plans and the update of the rural lands plan. Village residents expressed concerns about traffic and connectivity, while the agricultural community was concerned about a lack of young and new farmers coming to the county, likely due to the high cost of land and lack of smaller, more affordable parcels. 

Culpeper

  • The Town of Culpeper is overhauling its code of ordinances, a key tool for guiding land use and development. The overhaul will transition the town from strictly traditional zoning to a hybrid code that includes form-based zoning, which concentrates more on how buildings look and less on what occurs within them. Residents can view and comment on the draft code on the town website.
  • In March, the Culpeper County Planning Commission unanimously recommended denial of a 300 MW substation for the DALRO Project, a data center campus outside the Culpeper Tech Zone. The applicant withdrew the proposal before the Board of Supervisors could hear the case. 
  • The Board of Supervisors is considering changing its zoning ordinance to require a special use permit for data centers outside of the Culpeper Tech Zone. PEC is supportive of this change, which would remove data centers as a by-right use in all light and heavy industrial zoning districts in the county and could potentially allow the board to require additional information about a project before approving it. 
  • The Board of Supervisors has begun restricting through-truck traffic on Algonquin Trail (state Route 647) in Stevensburg. Construction traffic from the nearby Marvell data center campus has damaged this recently paved road.

Fauquier

  • PEC and other groups are opposing VDOT’s revised plan to replace the Interstate 66 bridge over Broad Run, which adds almost 35 additional feet of width to the previously planned replacement. We have major concerns about the impacts to the adjacent Chapman-Beverley Mill, the Broad Run-Little Georgetown Rural Historic District, the Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve and other resources nearby. VDOT held a public hearing on May 29 in Marshall, at which the vast majority in attendance expressed concern about the project.
  • The Warrenton Town Council, composed largely of council members elected on an anti-data center platform, has directed the Planning Commission to consider repealing the provisions of the zoning ordinance that allowed Amazon Web Services to apply for a data center near the northern end of town. The previous council’s approval of the application is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit by neighboring property owners and Citizens for Fauquier County. The Planning Commission recommended the repeal at their meeting on May 20.
  • The Fauquier County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors will be considering data centers proposed for Remington (Gigaland and Convergent) in May and June.

Greene

  • PEC supported Greene County’s Zoning Text Amendment process to address the potential threats to rural areas from over-scaled agritourism development. While recognizing the important economic role tourism plays in the county, the zoning amendment seeks to address community concerns about increased traffic, impacts to groundwater and wells, noise and light pollution, and the erosion of the rural character of the landscape. Impacts to groundwater and wells are especially concerning, as Greene is experiencing repeated periods of drought.

Loudoun

  • The Western Loudoun Comprehensive Plan Amendment and Zoning Ordinance Amendment updates continue: the Transportation and Land Use Committee facilitated discussions with agricultural and business stakeholders, residents and county staff. The April meeting focused on overnight stay accommodations, and the June 18 meeting will focus on Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority license uses in Western Loudoun. The public may provide input on the county website. We expect the first drafts of the new ordinance to come to the Zoning Ordinance Committee late this summer.
  • The Board of Supervisors initiated Phase 2 of the Data Center Comprehensive Plan Amendment and Zoning Ordinance Amendment in April. PEC will be engaged to encourage higher environmental performance standards. The board will continue to discuss at the June 18 Transportation and Land Use Committee meeting.
  • Dominion’s proposed Morrisville to Wishing Star transmission line now includes a new alternate route. We’re awaiting an announcement of the State Corporation Commission hearing date for the Golden to Mars line expected in the early fall and the status of the Aspen to Golden line appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia.
  • So far in this seventh season at the Community Farm at Roundabout Meadows, we have hosted more than 20 volunteer days and donated thousands of pounds of produce to hunger relief organizations in Clarke and Loudoun Counties. Our exciting new agrivoltaics project, coupling crops and solar production, is also underway.

Madison

  • The Madison County Board of Supervisors adopted an updated Comprehensive Plan on May 7. Alongside county residents, PEC has been engaged in the process from the beginning in November 2022, and believes the Comprehensive Plan gets it right. The updated plan will be the conservation-informed roadmap for new land use proposals: advancing an approach to growth that complements existing services and infrastructure, protects natural resources, open space, and productive farmland, and enhances economic opportunities and quality of life for residents. 

Orange

  • The Board of Supervisors has undertaken a project — expected to run through the end of 2025 — to consider some major changes to the zoning ordinance, including changes to the current agricultural district. PEC is hopeful the proposed changes will better protect farmland, but we were concerned to hear comments from project focus groups that believed conservation easements negatively impact agriculture. Conservation easements are a critically important tool for protecting Orange County’s rural landscape and working farms, as well as our waterways, forestland and important natural and cultural resources. The board will debate the proposed changes in a series of public work sessions. PEC will continue to monitor the board’s progress and provide updates.
  • PEC is closely monitoring the statewide rollout of regional workgroups tasked with drafting regional water supply plans by 2029. For example, the Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission will guide the creation of a single regional water supply plan for Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison, Orange and Rappahannock counties, in partnership with stakeholders that include localities, PEC and other conservation organizations. The five-year effort officially kicked off in February. PEC will work with local officials and residents to create sustainable plans informed by climate change and drought considerations.

Rappahannock

  • The Board of Supervisors has asked county staff to prepare a zoning ordinance amendment that would require new residential construction to comply with Dark Skies standards, which currently only apply to commercial and industrial zones. 
  • Rush River Commons in the town of Washington held an open house and began loading in its first 16 tenants in April. Sixteen of the 18 units are affordable housing restricted, and planning is underway for the second phase of the project, to include office, community and commercial space, with trails and public spaces.

This article appeared in the 2025 Summer edition of The Piedmont Environmental Council’s member newsletter, The Piedmont View. If you’d like to become a PEC member or renew your membership, please visit pecva.org/join.