Charlottesville, VA Data Centers & Crypto Mining: Data Center Zoning & Siting (2026)

The Development Code defines a data center under Div. 2, as a use primarily for the storage, management, processing and transmission of digital data, housing computer and network equipment along with associated air handlers, power generators, water cooling and utility infrastructure needed to keep it running. Div. 2 and confines it to CX-, NX- or DX- mixed-use districts; no residential, industrial-flex or special district permits it outright. Within an allowed district, the use is capped at 50% of the lot's total floor area, so a developer cannot devote an entire mixed-use building to server space, and the data center building cannot sit within 30 feet of the primary street or side-street building facade, preserving an active frontage instead of a blank utility wall along the sidewalk.

Because the use sits in Div. 4 rather than the by-right use table alone, an applicant must still confirm compliance with the district's own dimensional standards under Div. 10 (height, setbacks, transition screening where the lot abuts a residential district) before the Administrator issues a site plan or building permit. The code does not carve out a separate special use permit path for data centers, so a project that cannot meet the 50% floor-area cap or the 30-foot setback must seek a variance from the Board of Zoning Appeals or redesign the building rather than proceed as a matter of right.