On September 15, 2026, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted seven to one, with one abstention. The vote directed county staff to write a resolution pausing the Board’s own votes on certain data center and substation applications. WUSA9 The Board is scheduled to take up that resolution at its October 20 meeting, and it wants the pause to apply back to September 15. County alert The terms below come from the Board’s September motion and the county’s announcements, because the resolution stays a draft until the Board adopts it.
What did the Board vote to pause?
The pause covers legislative applications, which are requests that need a Board vote after public hearings, such as a rezoning. It also covers special exceptions. A special exception is a permit the Board may grant for a use the zoning rules allow only with its approval, and since March 2025 most new data centers in Loudoun need one. Loudoun County
Under the motion, the Board would hold off for up to 12 months. The count starts when an application first goes to the Planning Commission, the appointed board that holds the first public hearing. DC News Now The stated purpose is to finish the second phase of the county’s data center rules. That phase covers noise, onsite power, battery storage, substations and siting, and the county expects to finish it in summer 2027. County alert
Why the county says this is not a moratorium
Virginia localities have only the powers the General Assembly gives them, and courts resolve any doubt against the locality. Practitioner paper In 1975 the Supreme Court of Virginia held that Fairfax County’s power to approve subdivision plats did not let it stop accepting them. Virginia Business Loudoun’s own guidance says a blanket ban on data center approvals is not legally permissible, because the Board must consider each rezoning or special exception on its merits within a set time. Loudoun County
The pause is built around that set time. Virginia law requires a county to decide a petition to amend its zoning ordinance or map within a reasonable time of no more than 12 months. The applicant may ask for or agree to more time. Code of Virginia Loudoun’s zoning ordinance starts that clock at the Planning Commission public hearing. County alert So the Board is not refusing to decide. It is choosing to decide at the end of the period state law already allows.
Chesapeake adopted an eight month pause in July on the same theory. Its city attorney said the 1975 case concerned site plans and plats, which staff must approve when they meet the rules, and not discretionary rezonings. Virginia Business One Loudoun supervisor voted no in July over doubts that the Board has the authority and over the risk of lawsuits, and voted no again in September. Virginia Business
| Point | Before September 15 | Under the planned resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Board vote on a legislative application | Scheduled after Planning Commission review | Held for up to 12 months from the Planning Commission hearing, longer if the applicant agrees |
| Filing and Planning Commission review | Open | Still open |
| By right and grandfathered projects | Reviewed by county staff | Not affected |
| Grid reliability substations | Normal schedule | Board may still act during the pause |
| Inactive status | Possible after six months without applicant response | The pause itself does not cause it |
Pending applications stay active and continue through review during the pause
Developers may keep filing, and their applications still move through Planning Commission review. County alert Normally Loudoun treats an application as inactive if the applicant goes six months without answering review comments. Loudoun County The county says the pause will not make an application inactive.
A second vote lets the Board act during the pause when an application’s deadline is about to expire. It can also act when the project is a grid reliability substation. WUSA9 The planned resolution defines a grid reliability substation as a substation tied to an approved high voltage transmission line, a high voltage substation needed to serve other substations or keep the grid reliable, or a substation serving only customers too small for Dominion Energy Virginia’s rate class for users of 25 megawatts or more. Draft resolution, Virginia SCC Staff must also find applications that could hit the 12 month limit before the new rules are done and ask those applicants to agree to wait. Supervisor’s statement That agreement is voluntary, so an applicant who refuses keeps the right to a decision inside the 12 months. At least nine data center or substation applications are likely to reach that limit before the new rules are adopted. County staff report
The pause does not reach by right projects, which county staff approve without a Board vote when they meet the written rules. Fifteen grandfathered applications covering about 10.5 million square feet follow that path. On October 6 the Board tabled a proposed audit of whether those applications still qualify to be grandfathered, after county officials warned that ending their protection could expose the county to up to $60 million in litigation costs and liabilities. Data Center Frontier
Tomorrow’s topic
Lowndes County’s 20 year tax break for Alabama’s largest planned data center.