Chesapeake city council unanimously approves data center zoning ordinance

Chesapeake City Council votes to restrict where data centers can go in the city

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — Chesapeake City Council voted Tuesday night to restrict where data centers can go in the city. Before things got started, several residents, plus one donkey, made their voices heard by protesting outside of city hall with a clear message: no data centers in Chesapeake. "We don't want them here," said resident [...]

Chesapeake city council unanimously approves data center zoning ordinance

The Chesapeake city council voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve a proposed data center zoning ordinance, a topic that has been under discussion in Chesapeake for months.

Chesapeake, Virginia just pulled data centers off the by-right track entirely, forcing every future project through a conditional use permit and banning groundwater draw in a unanimous 9-0 council vote

The Direct Message Tension: Chesapeake residents wanted data centers kept out of their neighborhoods; developers had a by-right path that let projects skip council review entirely. The ordinance had to choose between those two realities. Noise: The easy framing is unanimous council vs. angry residents, or pro-industry vs. anti-industry. The actual fight was narrower: which zoning districts count as appropriate, and whether Fentress belongs on th…