The rise of data centers is becoming one of the hottest issues on the campaign trail this year in the election for the House of Delegates.
There's one issue that former Delegate Elizabeth Guzman hears about all the time in her campaign for a battleground House seat in Prince William County – data centers.
"They are telling me, 'OK, great data centers are here.' But I don't see what is in it for me. I don't see those incentives reflected on my property tax bill,'" Guzman says. "So, people in this district are seeing these data centers across their backyard or next to their school, and that should not happen anymore."
The Republican incumbent she’s trying to unseat is Delegate Ian Lovejoy. In the last session of the General Assembly, he introduced an unsuccessful bill that would have prohibited local governments from allowing data centers within a quarter mile of parks, schools or residences.
"When local governments get it wrong so often and so consistently, there is a role for the state government to step in and say you're being out of line," Lovejoy says. "So, for me, I think the state should establish proper buffers where data centers can go in relation to residential neighborhoods and parks and such."
His bill did not get out of subcommittee. But the General Assembly passed a separate bill that would’ve required local governments to do a site assessment of water use and potential noise output of any proposed data center. Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed it.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
