Virginia Technology Park:
What Frederick County Residents Need to Know
A 900 MW industrial data center campus is proposed for prime farmland in Clear Brook, Virginia. This is an analysis of what the application says, what it doesn't say, and what it permanently commits the county to before the Board of Supervisors votes.
Once the Board of Supervisors approves this rezoning, the proffers are recorded with the deed and become the permanent governing document for that land. The county cannot subsequently require additional commitments. This makes the adequacy of proffers at the time of approval the only meaningful point of public accountability in the entire development process.
The Virginia Technology Park proffers fail that test on water, noise, historic resources, fiscal impact, and grid infrastructure.
What is a rezoning?
Every parcel of land in Frederick County has a zoning designation that determines what can be built on it. The four parcels at issue here are currently zoned Rural Areas (RA), the county's most protective agricultural designation, intended to preserve farmland and limit industrial development.
A rezoning is a request to change that designation permanently. The applicant is asking the county to change these parcels from RA to Technology Manufacturing Park (TM). If approved, that change is recorded with the deed. It runs with the land. A future Board of Supervisors cannot simply undo it.
What is the Technology Manufacturing Park (TM) district?
The TM zone is Frederick County's purpose-built zoning category for data centers and related industrial technology uses, created and adopted in April 2025. It permits data centers, electrical substations, and associated industrial facilities as primary uses. Any commitments beyond those baseline standards (water use limits, fiscal impact analysis, grid impact review) can only be secured through proffers, which are entirely voluntary: the applicant decides what to offer.
What does "by-right" mean, and why does it matter?
Once a parcel is rezoned to TM, any permitted use becomes by-right: it can proceed without further Board or Planning Commission approval. The applicant submits a Master Development Plan (MDP) to the Planning Department, which reviews it for technical compliance only. There is no second public vote and no opportunity for the community to weigh in again on whether the development should happen.
What are proffers?
Proffers are written commitments that an applicant voluntarily offers as conditions of rezoning approval: noise limits, water targets, road improvements, fire contributions. Once the Board approves the rezoning, proffers are recorded with the deed and are legally enforceable, but only to the extent they are written clearly. Proffer language that is vague or aspirational is effectively unenforceable.
The Board of Supervisors has already rejected this applicant's proposals twice. If the BOS approves this rezoning, data center development on these ~220 acres becomes by-right. The county's ability to shape, condition, or prevent that development ends at the moment of the vote. The proffers offered in this application are the only binding commitments the county will ever have.
Status update: The Planning Commission voted 10-0 on June 3, 2026 to recommend denial of Rezoning #04-26. Equus Capital Partners subsequently pulled the application from the July 8 Board of Supervisors agenda. The BOS hearing is postponed indefinitely. Monitor fcva.us for updates.
The record owners of the four parcels are DTS, LC, William O. Minor, and David K. and Brenda S. Gray. The contract purchaser and applicant is Executive Land Holdings IV, LLC, a vehicle for Equus Capital Partners, Ltd. (Newtown Square, PA).
The application was signed by John Knott as Vice President of Executive Land Holdings IV, acting simultaneously as Attorney-in-Fact for each of the record owners. The same entity representing the buyer was also signing on behalf of the sellers.
The land use attorney of record is J. Randall Minchew of Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley & Walsh, PC, the same firm that represented the applicant in the prior "Fruit Hill" rezoning attempt withdrawn after HRAB review in 2022.
A single private equity operator controls both sides of the transaction. The actual end users are explicitly unnamed. The applicant states in their own Impact Analysis that "the end users of the industrial development on the Property have not been identified."
The county is being asked to permanently rezone ~220 acres of prime agricultural land for an industrial use whose actual operators, water demands, electrical loads, and traffic patterns are all unknown at the time of approval.
The current application covers the same core parcels that were the subject of the withdrawn 2022 Fruit Hill rezoning (220.06 acres from RA to M1/B2/OM). The new application repackages the request as a rezoning to TM, originally adding one additional parcel.
The applicant acknowledges the prior HRAB history directly, noting that Proffer #8 "incorporates the language from the previous HRAB comment letter from 2022." The historic preservation commitments are the minimum the applicant was already told to meet three years ago. These are not new concessions.
This follows a pattern common in Virginia data center development: a private equity land acquisition vehicle assembles rural parcels, submits a rezoning that gets withdrawn or denied under public pressure, repackages with modest additions, and resubmits. The three-year gap between the Fruit Hill withdrawal and the Virginia Technology Park resubmission tracks the county's April 2025 adoption of TM-zone performance standards, which gave the applicant a cleaner regulatory pathway.
The Impact Analysis acknowledges the parcels contain Frederick Poplimento Loams, Oaklet Silt Loams, and Carbo-Oaklet Silt Loams. The Virginia Agricultural Model map designates these as "prime farmland and farmland of statewide importance." The parcels also contain approximately 54 acres of woodlands.
The conversion is irreversible. There is no agricultural land bank contribution, no conservation easement on adjacent parcels, and no payment in lieu of agricultural preservation in the proffers. Data centers in Virginia are largely exempt from the retail sales tax on equipment under the state's data center tax incentive program, meaning the county bears the full infrastructure cost while primary tax benefits flow to the state.
The applicant acknowledges the area is served by a single 12-inch water main under Interstate 81. Two hydrant pressure tests showed flows of only 950 and 1,005 GPM, described in their own Impact Analysis as "barely meeting Frederick Water's minimal flow requirements."
The applicant admits that "expansion of the existing sanitary public water systems will be required for full build-out," but that "the end users of the industrial development on the Property have not been identified."
The proffers list four cooling strategies the applicant "may" employ. There are no binding water consumption targets, no gallons-per-day caps, and no enforceable efficiency metrics tied to occupancy permits.
The word "may" has no legal force in a proffer. An applicant who proffers that they "may" do something has committed to nothing. The county has accepted language that creates the appearance of a water commitment while guaranteeing nothing about actual water use.
Existing water infrastructure is already at minimum functional capacity before a single data center comes online. A 900 MW campus will consume water at a scale that has no analog in the county's current industrial base. The absence of binding consumption commitments means this question will not be formally resolved before ground is broken.
The Environmental Noise Impact Assessment concludes that "with mitigation, including a barrier on the roof, the sound level at the property line can be brought to a level at or below 70 dBA." The same report explicitly states that "since many assumptions about the site were made, an additional acoustical analysis of the final design will be necessary to demonstrate final compliance."
The proffer locks in a 70 dBA property line limit. Generator testing is restricted to weekdays 8am–5pm, but generators may operate outside those hours during any "emergency." The noise modeling was run on a hypothetical layout subject to change through MDP.
70 dBA sustained 24/7 is roughly equivalent to a vacuum cleaner at close range or a busy restaurant, sustained continuously around the clock. Adjacent neighborhoods include Carrollton Subdivision and Ridgeway Estates to the north, and single-family RA parcels to the west and south.
The proffer establishes a standard without confirming the development can actually meet it as designed. If the final acoustical analysis reveals compliance problems after rezoning, the county's only remedy is litigation. The generator testing restriction does not address continuous mechanical noise from chillers, cooling towers, and mega-packs, which operate around the clock.
The applicant proffers $150 per 1,000 gross square feet at certificate of occupancy for each structure. With eleven buildings totaling ~2.375 million sq ft, the maximum one-time fire and rescue contribution is roughly $356,000, with no recurring component and no inflation mechanism beyond CPI.
Frederick County's fire and rescue system will be first responder to any incident at a 900 MW campus housing sensitive electrical infrastructure, diesel generator fuel storage, and battery energy storage systems. The one-time contribution does not fund recurring training, specialized equipment, or additional response capacity. The county will bear those costs in perpetuity; the proffer addresses them once.
The Generalized Development Plan shows three 300 MW substations (~6 acres each). These are classified in the proffers as "accessory uses" customarily associated with technology industrial parks. As accessories, they receive no independent noise, visual, or infrastructure commitments. The total 900 MW electrical draw is not analyzed for grid impact anywhere in the application package.
The entire peak electrical demand of Frederick County is estimated at 200–300 MW. This development proposes to draw three times that load, classified as an accessory use with no independent review required.
The county has no basis for evaluating what this development will require from the regional transmission system, who will pay for transmission upgrades, or what the reliability implications are for existing ratepayers. No analysis has been provided, and none is required by the proffers.
Two historic structures are on the property: the Lewis-Solenberger House (DHR #034-1463) at 384 Ruebuck Lane and the Cather House (DHR #034-1464) at 257 Ruebuck Lane, both constructed circa 1800.
Both were assessed in 2022 at reconnaissance level as "recommended not eligible" for the National Register. The 2022 HRAB recommended Phase II interior studies. The current Proffer #8 commits to an Architectural Resources Study and Phase II study before the first MDP. Neither proffer commits to any specific outcome (preservation, recordation, or relocation) contingent on what the studies find.
Both structures are circa 1800 vernacular farmhouses with stone foundations and potentially intact interior log construction. If the Phase II study finds significant interior fabric or previously undocumented historical associations, the proffer imposes no obligation to preserve, document, or relocate either structure. The study becomes a procedural requirement with no enforceable consequence attached to its findings.
The proffer statement contains none of the following commitments:
- Any binding cap on water consumption
- Any commitment to identify end users prior to rezoning approval
- Any grid impact analysis or utility coordination requirement
- Any preservation or recordation commitment for the Lewis-Solenberger or Cather Houses beyond conducting studies
- Any traffic mitigation triggered by actual data center operational loads
- Any fiscal impact analysis of the county's long-term cost-to-revenue ratio for this land use conversion
Proffers in Virginia rezonings are a one-time negotiation. Once the BOS approves the rezoning, the proffers are recorded with the deed permanently. The Virginia Technology Park proffers fail on four structural grounds:
Aspirational Rather Than Enforceable
Water minimization commitments list strategies the applicant "may" employ. The word "may" has no legal force in a proffer. Noise compliance was modeled on a hypothetical layout ; the applicant's own consultants state a final analysis is still required after rezoning.
Key Decisions Deferred Until After the County's Leverage Is Gone
Building configuration, generator placement, chiller arrangement, and road alignments are all subject to MDP adjustment. What the BOS is approving is not a development plan; it is a framework within which a plan will eventually be created, with the county's negotiating position permanently weakened once the vote is taken.
One-Time Costs, Ongoing Obligations
The $356,000 fire and rescue contribution is one-time with no recurring component. End users haven't been identified, so the county cannot evaluate actual service demands. The county will bear infrastructure costs in perpetuity; the proffer addresses them once.
The Largest Elements Are Classified as Accessories
Three 300 MW substations are classified as "accessory uses" , receiving no independent noise, visual, or infrastructure review. The single largest infrastructure impact of this development receives no analysis and no mitigation commitment in the document that will permanently govern this land.
The Clear Brook area falls within the service territory of Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC), with a current peak system demand of roughly 948 megawatts. The Virginia Technology Park proposes 900 MW of substation capacity , roughly equivalent to REC's entire current peak demand, proposed as a single development in a single county. REC now expects up to 17 GW of data center demand by 2040, up from near zero in 2023.
The Regional Grid Is Already Under Strain
- PJM's 2025 Long-Term Load Forecast projects 32 GW of peak load growth by 2030. Data centers account for 94% of that increase.
- PJM's most recent capacity auction clearing price jumped to $329.17/MW-day for 2026–2027, more than ten times the $28.92 price for 2024–2025, with those costs flowing through to households and businesses.
- 67 million people served by PJM were hit with an extra $9.4 billion in electricity bills as proposed data centers drove up prices.
- The PJM capacity auction closed 6,600 MW short of its reserve margin in December 2025.
- PJM's independent market monitor filed a complaint with FERC in November 2025 stating PJM should not permit the interconnection of large new data center loads if they cannot be served reliably.
- Of Dominion's $7.6 billion in planned new transmission infrastructure, residential customers will pay 55%. An analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists found $4.3 billion in transmission costs passed on to consumers in seven PJM states in a single year.
- In February 2025, PJM selected a major transmission project including ~260 miles of 765-kV lines between Putnam County, WV and Frederick County, MD, running through or adjacent to Frederick County, VA. The project was built specifically to address data center load growth.
Frederick County residents will absorb a share of whatever transmission upgrade costs result from this development through their utility bills, with no analysis of those costs presented to the county at the time of approval. The proffer statement contains no interconnection study, no grid impact analysis, and no transmission upgrade commitment.
Virginia's JLARC recommended in December 2024 that the General Assembly authorize local governments to require water use estimates and sound modeling for data centers. No equivalent mechanism exists for grid impact analyses. The Board of Supervisors has no formal power to compel one, and the applicant has provided none voluntarily.
- [1]Biller, T.E. (2025). Virginia co-op proposes path to keep data centers from boosting electric bills. Richmond Times-Dispatch / Daily Progress, April 11, 2025. ↗ dailyprogress.com
- [2]Main, I. (2025). Will special rate classes protect Va. residents from the costs of serving data centers? Virginia Mercury, April 25, 2025. ↗ virginiamercury.com
- [3]POWWR. (2025). How Data Centers Are Reshaping PJM's Energy Market. November 10, 2025. ↗ powwr.com
- [4]Data Center Dynamics. (2025). Dominion to build new high voltage lines to supply proposed 900MW data center in Chesterfield County, Virginia. ↗ datacenterdynamics.com
- [5]Rutigliano, T. and Lang-Ree, C. (2025). Solving PJM's data center problem. Utility Dive, December 2, 2025. ↗ utilitydive.com
- [6]Eberhart, M. (2025). States and residents push back on PJM data center decisions. Technical.ly, December 5, 2025. ↗ technical.ly
- [7]Baker Botts. (2025). FERC Issues Order Providing Guidance for "Co-locating" Power Plants with Data Centers within PJM. December 2025. ↗ bakerbotts.com
- [8]Howland, E. (2025). No more PJM data centers unless they can be reliably served: market monitor. Utility Dive, November 26, 2025. ↗ utilitydive.com
- [9]E&E News. (2025). Data center boom sparks sticker shock for PJM ratepayers. October 3, 2025. ↗ eenews.net
- [10]American Electric Power. (2025). PJM selects regional transmission projects to be jointly developed by AEP, Dominion Energy, FirstEnergy. February 27, 2025. ↗ aep.com
- [11]Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. (2024). Data Centers in Virginia. December 9, 2024. ↗ jlarc.virginia.gov
The Planning Commission voted 10-0 on June 3, 2026 to recommend denial. Equus Capital Partners has since pulled the application from the July 8 Board of Supervisors agenda, postponing it indefinitely. When a new BOS hearing is scheduled, that will be the binding vote. Supervisors and written comments still matter.
Your Board of Supervisors
Six supervisors will vote on this rezoning. Gary Oates (Stonewall District) has announced he will recuse himself due to business interests. The remaining six votes determine the outcome. No single district controls the result.
Not sure which district you're in? Use the county's district finder to look up your magisterial district by address.