Accokeek Center data campus In review
Rezoning with proffers plus a conditional use permit for a substation. The Planning Commission recommended approval on separate 4-3 votes in late Aug 2026; the Board of Supervisors had not voted as of Sep 1, 2026, the night it instead directed letters seeking a state special session and a temporary pause on large-scale approvals.
Key facts
- Location
- Stafford County, Virginia
- Stage today
- In review
Source
read 2026-09-05
What to do next
Next step: An application is in the record. Ask the planning office for the next hearing date and request formal notice.
What has happened so far (2 events)
- 2026-08-26vote
Stafford Planning Commission recommended, on separate 4-3 votes, that the Board of Supervisors approve the Accokeek Center rezoning with proffers and the conditional use permit for its substation (late August 2026; the recommendation was reported Aug 28 and Sep 1). · source - 2026-09-01meeting
The Board of Supervisors took no vote on Accokeek; it directed staff to draft letters to Gov. Spanberger asking for a special session on data center rules and, failing that, a temporary pause on new large-scale approvals. Supervisor Vanuch: 'I don't want us to be in a situation where we approve now and regulate later.' · source
Find the paper trail
Find the paper trail (0 filed · 12 places to look)
State environmental permits
Backup generators, water withdrawal and stormwater are permitted by the state, usually earlier and in more detail than anything filed locally.
- Virginia DEQThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
- Search Virginia DEQ for this projectsearchThis state publishes no searchable permit database, so a written records request to the agency is the reliable route. Use this search only to find the right office.
County & town filings
The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.
- Board of Supervisors agendas & packetsThe meeting packet carries the staff report, site plan and conditions — verified page for this locality.
- Search Stafford County planning filingssearchPlanning departments post application files under many different names. Find the department, then ask the clerk for the application number — that number unlocks everything else.
- Search Stafford County property records / GISsearchThe parcel record names the buying LLC and the sale date, which is what ties an anonymous filing to an operator.
Utility & grid records
The electricity request is filed with the grid operator and the utility long before the town hears about it — and states the real load.
- PJM Interconnection (Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
- Virginia State Corporation Commission — docket searchSpecial contracts, large-load tariffs and rate cases are docketed here. Testimony and exhibits are public, and are usually more candid than the press release.
- FERC eLibraryFederal filings: transmission agreements, interconnection service agreements, and co-location disputes.
- Search the serving utility for a will-serve lettersearchThe will-serve or load-service letter is the utility's own written commitment. Ask the utility and the PUC for it by name — it is frequently the first document to exist.
Federal databases
Works anywhere, and covers the operator's record at its other sites.
- EPA ECHO facility searchEvery federally-reported air, water and waste permit at a facility, plus its inspection and violation history. Search by address or draw a radius around the site. This project's locality centres on 38.450, -77.380 — search that point with a 5-mile radius.
- EPA EnvirofactsThe same underlying records, queryable by county — useful for 'what else is permitted near this site' rather than one facility.
- EPA Facility Registry ServiceResolves the shell LLC on a permit to the facility it belongs to. Worth a look when the filing name means nothing locally.
These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records. What to ask for.
Recent news
11 stories tracked since 2026-07-23 across 4 outlets. 9× A community is pushing back on a nearby data center. 1× Noise from the facility is drawing resident complaints. Most recent: “Stafford residents oppose massive data centers proposed near Rappahannock River” (WJLA, 2026-10-09).
- Stafford residents oppose massive data centers proposed near Rappahannock River
- Stafford approves data center with reduced setbacks
- Armed with study, Protect Stafford making noise about potential data center decibel levels
- Stafford County Planning Commission backs new 590K-square-foot data center complex
- Stafford County Planning Commission backs new 590K-square-foot data center complex
- Stafford County Planning Commission backs new 590K-square-foot data center complex
- Stafford County Planning Commission backs new 590K-square-foot data center complex
- Stafford County Planning Commission backs new 590K-square-foot data center complex
- Stafford County Planning Commission backs new 590K-square-foot data center complex
- Stafford County Planning Commission backs new 590K-square-foot data center complex
- Data Center Ban Proposed In Stafford
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 11 headlines archived.
Around here
- Stafford County community briefing — Enactedno end date — permanent
- Virginia briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.
Other tracked projects in Virginia
- Potomac Creek data center (historic cemetery site) — Stafford County, 5 mi In review
- STACK Infrastructure NVA02 — Manassas, 20 mi Under construction
- PW Digital Gateway — Prince William County, 21 mi Withdrawn
- Google Bristow — Bristow (Prince William County), 21 mi
- Dulles Cloud South — Prince William County, 26 mi Denied
Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “Accokeek Center data campus”, aigridwatch.com/projects/accokeek-center-stafford-va, retrieved 2026-10-11.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
A working set of identified proposals a community can track, not a census — most of the country's activity is not in here yet. Pennsylvania is the exception: its rows are synced from PA DEP's own data-center permit tracker, so the state's coverage is close to complete and carries the permit trail with it. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to reporting or the governing body's own record and were read on that date; rows marked *unverified* have no source on record — a lead to check, not a fact to cite. **Stage is derived, not asserted.** *Hearing scheduled*, *Awaiting decision*, *Approved* and *Withdrawn* are computed from each row's milestone dates on every rebuild, so a hearing date that has passed stops reading 'scheduled'. Hearings get moved and projects re-file under new names — treat a scheduled date as the earliest to act by, and confirm with the clerk before relying on it. Leads are mined into data/project_candidates.json and promoted here only after a human reads a primary source.
Part of the data center project tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0 (JSON · CSV).