Chesterfield appeals board rejects by-right data center claim
Chesterfield's Board of Zoning Appeals voted 4-0 to uphold a ruling that WestDulles Properties needs a conditional use permit for a data center campus on a 550-acre site near Chester.
Chesterfield County's Board of Zoning Appeals voted 4-0 on Wednesday, Oct. 7, to reject an appeal by WestDulles Properties, a Reston-based developer that argued it had a vested right to build a data center campus by right on land in the James River Industrial Center near Chester. The decision leaves in place a county staff determination, issued in December 2025, that the project needs a conditional use permit.
The company's assemblage covers about 550 acres, including 1500 Battery Brooke Parkway. Mass-grading plans filed in 2025 show a 170-acre project area and a 260-acre future phase. The filings do not state how many data center buildings are planned or their total size. LLCs tied to the company began acquiring parts of the property in 2021 and controlled the full assemblage by 2024.
WestDulles argued the land was zoned I-3 Heavy Industrial, where data centers were allowed by right under the county's old zoning ordinance, and pointed to earlier staff determinations and its spending on site work, engineering and power planning with Dominion Energy. Deputy County Attorney Andrew Fulwider countered that the developer's September 2025 letter asked only for a zoning confirmation, not a vested-rights ruling, and that the county's reply was not a project approval. Board Chairman John Caperton said the request was too broad to support a claim to a specific project.
Chesterfield's new zoning ordinance, in effect in 2026, requires data centers on industrial land to go through the conditional use permit process, with public hearings and case-by-case review by the Board of Supervisors. Under the new ordinance the WestDulles property is zoned Employment General and Warehouse and Distribution. In August, county officials said supervisors would not approve future data center proposals.
This is the second such appeal the board has turned down this year. On June 3, it unanimously rejected a similar challenge for an 89-acre data center site at 1931 Old Bermuda Hundred Road. WestDulles CEO Eric Wells said the company disagrees with the decision and is "evaluating all our legal options," including an appeal to circuit court.
The ruling is a second test of whether Chesterfield's new permit requirement holds against developers who planned data centers under the old by-right rules. If it stands, large industrial sites in the county face public hearings and a board that has said it will not approve new data centers.
What's next
- TBD WestDulles decides whether to appeal to Chesterfield Circuit Court