VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Virginia Beach City Council has unanimously agreed to reject future large-scale data center development in the city, following months of public opposition from residents who packed meetings to voice their concerns.
Mayor Bobby Dyer made the city's position clear during Tuesday's City Council meeting.
"The council this afternoon unanimously agreed that we will not entertain any data centers in the city of Virginia Beach," Dyer said.
Residents who attended the meeting welcomed the decision.
"And I wanna say thank you from the bottom of my heart for choosing humanity over data centers," one citizen said.
"Everybody said no to that very quickly and I'm very appreciative," another citizen said.
While the city is drawing a line against new hyperscale data centers, officials note there are already colocation facilities operating in Virginia Beach. Those facilities fall under one of several classifications of data centers but are not considered the large-scale developments that sparked community opposition.
City leaders say they still support the infrastructure that helps power the region's digital economy. Virginia Beach serves as the landing point for 4 new transoceanic fiber optic cables, connecting the region to global communications networks.
"We want the cables coming in. We want the center to accommodate there, but then again that's not a nuisance that's added value," Dyer said.
When it comes to attracting major data center campuses, however, the council's position was unambiguous.
"No, I don't think they're really a value to any community," Dyer said.
"We're not only saying no to data centers, we're saying hell no to data centers," Dyer said.
The council's stance drew applause from residents who hope the issue is now settled.
"No more data centers. We don't need to talk about this ever again. It's not coming up another session," one citizen said.
The proposed resolution still needs to go to the planning commission and return to city council for a final vote.
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