Virginia Beach officials want to prohibit large data centers while protecting the city’s position as a subsea cable landing hub that’s part of an international information highway.
Council members supported Mayor Bobby Dyer’s call to ban larger centers and a type of center called a hyperscaler while amending zoning rules to require a conditional use permit for smaller data center businesses like those already in existence.
During a Tuesday meeting, officials drew distinctions between these and the giant centers that are controversial elsewhere. Centers vary in size, scope and purpose.
“We got together this afternoon, unanimously together as a city council, and we’re saying not only no to data centers, we’re saying hell no to the data centers,” Dyer told reporters, referring to two categories of larger centers discussed during the meeting.
Council wants the Planning Commission to recommend changes.
Last month, Planning Commission Chairperson John Coston advised in a letter that data centers aren’t singled out in zoning and can be built in industrial areas. He suggested requiring a conditional use permit to let the commission weigh in on data centers and make recommendations to the council.
Peter Wallace, the city’s information technology director, briefed council Tuesday about four categories of centers.
Types that could be prohibited were larger data centers, which house computing infrastructure, and hyperscalers, which handle massive cloud platforms and AI workloads and require sizable campuses.
The presentation described two as low-impact: subsea cable landing sites, which carry international internet traffic, and colocation facilities, which can house multiple tenants with their servers and equipment.
Two colocation facilities, Telxius and Globalinx, are at Corporate Landing Business Park, according to the presentation. Similar businesses might need to have a conditional use permits under future regulations.
Last month, the Virginia Beach Development Authority awarded a $800,000 grant to Globalinx, which operates a landing station data center and plans to add more subsea cables.
“Here in Virginia Beach, we are the landing point for several transoceanic fiber connection cables and the mega data center outside of Richmond is where these cables terminate,” Planning Director Kathy Warren said during the meeting.
Councilmember Worth Remick said the city needed to protect the cable landing facilities.
“That is a precious thing that we have here,” he said during the meeting.
In an interview, Remick said a recommendation that comes back to the council should be specific in defining what is or isn’t allowed.
