Prince William County, VA Data Centers & Crypto Mining: Data Center Zoning & Siting (2026)

Part 509 of the Zoning Ordinance, added by Ord. No. 16-21 (adopted May 17, 2016), creates the Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District 'for the purpose of promoting development of data centers within areas of the County where there is existing infrastructure that could adequately support the proposed use' while 'limiting negative impacts to communities' (Sec. 01). 02(1) restricts where the overlay can even be created: only on land in proximity to transmission lines of 115 kilovolts or more that is planned or zoned for office or industrial use, and the Board of County Supervisors must create or amend it by ordinance with mapped boundaries.

02(3) makes the overlay's standard control. 02(4) then layers on design requirements: principal building facades facing arterials or interstates need at least two differentiating elements (height changes, step-backs, fenestration, material or color changes, or accent materials); mechanical equipment and substations must be screened from major roads and residential land, with substations needing a ten-foot opaque fence facing residential property; any side or rear yard next to non-commercial/non-industrial land needs a buffer yard planted on a six-foot earthen berm with no steeper than a 2:1 slope, at a Type C DCSM planting standard; chain-link and barbed-wire fencing are barred along public or private street frontages; and buildings visible from Manassas Battlefield Park viewsheds must use non-reflective dark green or dark brown facades.

0 FAR in the overlay if every other development standard is met (a data center outside the overlay can only seek an FAR increase through a special use permit under Sec. 04).