CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — Chesterfield County's Economic Development Authority is proposing two new data centers.
One would be near Moseley on the upper Magnolia Green west tract, the other on a part of the Watkins Centre near Westchester Commons.
The two projects and a third, which would put a conservation area on the east side of the upper Magnolia Parcel, have been submitted to the planning commission for rezoning.
The rezoning requests for the upper magnolia data center would exclude all residential development from 700 acres and would create the swift creek preserve on 350 acres between Westerleigh Parkway and Duval Road to the east of the proposed Powhite Parkway extension.
The EDA already owns much of that land while it is in the process of buying the Watkins Centre parcel.
While both properties are already mostly zoned for data centers the rezoning requests would bring in the bordering parcels.
In a statement the EDA said the projects will bring unspecified job creation unspecified tax revenue and opportunities for local businesses.
Critics of data centers have pointed to their noise and high energy use.
