In Virginia, Gigaland’s developers have resubmitted a scaled-down data center plan, cutting total floor space and dropping one building.
They reduced structures to one story (about 45 feet) to ease local concerns about visual impact and industrial scale in a rural area.
Power demand is now halved, with two substations instead of four, which meaningfully shrinks the site’s grid draw and related transmission build-out.
The project still requires rezoning 202 acres from residential to business park and approvals for 80-foot buildings and a water tower, so entitlement risk remains high.
Local politics are tense, with developers, advocacy groups, and politicians battling over growth, signaling potential delays and conditions around noise, energy use, and community impact.
If approved, this is still a sizable AI/data center campus footprint, just with lower power density and less skyline impact than the original proposal.
Worth watching for how rural counties set precedents on power corridors and zoning for large-scale compute campuses.
Source: ‘Gigaland’ resubmits scaled down data center project | Localnews | fauquier.com
