Virginia Beach may become the next Hampton Roads city to press pause on new data center projects until officials figure out how to regulate them.
On Tuesday, City Council will consider a moratorium on permits for new data centers. A proposed resolution would put the moratorium in place for 12 months, which could be cut short if council enacts local zoning standards to help regulate them.
Via email, a city spokesperson declined to discuss the proposal before next week’s meeting but said planning staff “will be working to develop zoning code amendments once they receive direction from council and complete their research.”
In June, city leaders said they don’t want large-scale data centers and planning staff has been researching potential regulation since then. A summary of the proposed moratorium said developing regulations has “proven to be a challenge” because there aren’t clear industry standards to help find the threshold of what to allow or avoid.
Chesapeake and Suffolk have also used moratoriums to buy time on the hot-button topic, which has been controversial around the commonwealth. Chesapeake on Tuesday may amend its zoning code to require conditional use permits for data centers, allowing them only in certain industrial areas. That comes after the city rejected a data center proposal in 2025 amid substantial pushback from residents worried about excessive noise and usage of electricity and water.
The topic is complex because data centers can vary widely by size, purpose and impact. In Virginia Beach, relatively smaller data center businesses exist related to the city’s role as a subsea cable landing hub, but these are different from massive “hyperscalers” sometimes envisioned when folks hear about a data center.
In a May letter, Planning Commission Chair John Coston told council data centers aren’t a specific use in zoning rules and could be built in industrial areas as the rules stand now. The letter said Virginia Beach could change the rules to require a conditional use permit for data centers to have some oversight.
“Council will do what they need to do but I think it may be a step in the right direction until we determine what is the proper path to take,” Coston said Thursday, speaking about the moratorium.
There is no clear timeline for when Virginia Beach will change its zoning, which may have led to the resolution for a moratorium.
On Wednesday, a presentation to the Planning Commission gave an update about the staff’s work researching the issue, speaking with other communities and learning about an evolving industry where categorization can be tough.
“We are continuing to work towards providing an ordinance that would add data centers as a specific use, require a conditional use permit, and then look at what those requirements would be,” Hannah Sabo, the city’s zoning administrator, told the commission.
Aspects under consideration include looking at what kind of water or power centers would consume or limiting size in a way that doesn’t impact existing businesses. A noise study could be required and the city could consider a “technology overlay zone” within industrial parks, which could help regulate reuse of existing buildings. Staff is also looking at impacts of smaller centers, too, according to the presentation, which noted moratoriums enacted elsewhere.
During the meeting, Commissioner Walter Camp said a moratorium could be a way for the city to finish its research and draft regulations.
“A moratorium would suspend that ability to do the by-right development and provide the city time to complete its work on these regulations,” Camp said Thursday.
