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AWS tables Virginia data center after community pushback
The proposed 7.2 million-square-foot operation -- one of the world's largest -- would have added to Amazon's $35 billion data center plan in Virginia.
AWS has withdrawn plans for a 7.2 million-square-foot data center -- which would have been one of the world's largest -- in Louisa County, Va., after neighbors voiced concerns about its potential impact.
Amazon scuttled the plan last week after citizens protested the 1,370-acre project -- an area the size of more than 1,000 football fields -- citing concerns about water availability and overall effect on the rural landscape.
"We have heard the community and appreciate the desire for more robust input in any future projects that may be brought forward in the county," said Charles W. Payne, Jr., an attorney for AWS, in a statement.
The Louisa County community's win to block the project highlights a potential pushback on U.S. tech companies' ambitious efforts in a global AI race. And the fight comes on the heels of U.S. President Donald Trump's AI Action Plan, which pushes deregulation efforts to support fast-tracked data center builds throughout the country.
Alan Howard, principal analyst in Omdia's cloud and data center practice, said companies need to do more to communicate with stakeholders early on. Omdia is a division of Informa TechTarget.
"Local activism can paint a bleak picture on how data centers or any industrial facility will be a blight in the neighborhood," he said. "Regulations are, in general, a good thing to protect residential neighborhoods … but an overzealous NIMBY ['not in my backyard'] influence, combined with legislators or regulators that don't understand data centers, simply chases away economic opportunity to other markets."
AWS said its proposed data center would have employed up to 864 people and added up to $144 million in gross tax revenue. For residents opposed to the project, those benefits would not outweigh the potential risks.
The Trump card
The Trump administration has promised lighter federal permitting regulations for projects costing more than $500 million, but the Louisa County fight shows localized efforts could still provide substantial hurdles. Additionally, Trump's AI Action Plan calls for data center construction on federal lands.
AWS already has two data centers under construction in Louisa County, a rural community south of Washington, D.C. Those projects, representing $11 billion of a $35 billion AWS data center statewide effort, did not require the same permitting scrutiny and community input.
In 2018, the county developed a Technology Overlay District, opening the area to data center construction "by right" in designated zones without the need for additional use permits. But the county's board of supervisors now requires new projects to file a conditional use permit and gather community input.
Lessons for both sides
Louisa is a two-hour drive from Loudoun County, home to the so-called "Data Center Alley" -- the largest concentration of active data centers in the world. At the meeting held at a local Baptist church last week, community members passed out stickers reading "Don't Loudoun my Louisa."
Amazon's proposed Louisa data center would have been one of the largest in the world and would have tied for the largest in North America. Switch's Nevada data center -- the Citadel Campus -- also has 7.2 million square feet planned, with an estimated cost of $1.3 billion. China's Inner Mongolia Information Park sits atop the list with a 10.7 million-square-foot data center.
While AWS does not disclose data center footprint specifics, an ABI Research report says the cloud hyperscaler operates the most worldwide, with 126 sites as of 2024, accounting for 25% of the market.
Will Townsend, vice president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, said AWS may try again after a community outreach effort.
"The general population is unaware of what is actually involved in cooling data centers with the reuse of water and recirculating systems," he said. "My guess is that AWS recognizes the need to educate communities before going to the permitting process -- and they pulled this one as a lesson learned."
"Sustainability is a valid concern given the power consumption of AI data centers, but silicon and infrastructure are rapidly advancing to address these issues," he added.
Shane Snider, a veteran journalist with more than 20 years of experience, covers IT infrastructure at Informa TechTarget.
