Winchester Gateway CUP #03-26

The April 2025 amendment moved data centers in M1 from by-right to conditional and added §165-705.01. The September 23, 2026 removal of data centers from the ordinance would have ended this application, except that the same-night resolution lets the Board hear it under the prior rules (pp. 4, 10).

The Planning Commission had already voted unanimously to recommend denial on September 2, three weeks before the Board grandfathered the application. The question should be asked why it was grandfathered when it was recommended for denial.

Staff’s report describes the window as “on or before 10/28/26” (p. 10). The resolution itself runs to Dec 9 or Dec 10, depending on whether one reads the memo or resolution ¶2.

The 2021 Comprehensive Plan and Kernstown Area Plan show the parcel as “industrial,” inside the SWSA and the Shady Elm Economic Development Area, and staff finds the use consistent with that (pp. 7–8). The same report places the site in the Second Kernstown (VA116) Core Area and the First Kernstown (VA101) and Second Winchester (VA107) Study Areas (p. 1).

Sources: BOS packet pp. 1, 4, 7–8, 10; grandfathering memo and resolution

The parcel sits at the SW corner of Apple Valley Rd (Rt. 652) and Middle Rd (Rt. 628), east of Rt. 37, with 3,241.4 ft of road frontage. It came to Winchester Gateway LLC by deed from Blackburn Farm, LLC. It is M1 under REZ #06-23, whose proffers (rev. April 10, 2024) already contemplated a data center: a 200-ft buffer, an earthen berm, and a 65 dB(A) noise cap (pp. 4, 27).

Across Apple Valley Rd is the Kernstown Battlefield Association’s 355-acre battlefield, with three wells and a cattle operation (pp. 253–254). The Civil War Preservation Trust, Fellowship Bible Church and about 19 residential owners on Apple Valley Rd are among 32 listed adjoiners (p. 30).

Winchester Gateway 2 LLC, at the same Leesburg address as the applicant, owns adjoining parcel 62-A-80. MuniCap labels this “Phase I” and states the Developer “plans to engage in future phases of substantial additional development on adjacent parcels” (p. 192).

Frederick Water mains (including a 20-inch main) and sewer force mains run along Apple Valley Rd in easements over 60 ft wide, plus a parallel 20-ft gas easement (p. 238).

Sources: BOS packet pp. 4, 22, 27, 30, 192, 238, 253–254

“…plans to engage in future phases of substantial additional development on adjacent parcels.”

MuniCap economic impact analysis, July 7, 2026 (p. 192)

Staff writes that total MW “has not been included in the application materials” (pp. 2, 9). The applicant’s site assessment states ~158 MW maximum demand, served by 138 kV lines on site connecting to a substation across Rt. 37, with a new on-site substation at the applicant’s cost. The interconnection study is “in its second phase” (pp. 41, 45).

The applicant commits that improvements for “initial” energization stay within existing Rt. 37 easements, and says no new corridors are “proposed, needed, or anticipated” (pp. 22, 41–42). That commitment is not among the 11 draft conditions.

MuniCap’s electricity input, 62,709,525 kWh a year (p. 209), equals an average load of about 7.2 MW, about 4.5% of 158 MW.

Sources: BOS packet pp. 2, 9, 22, 41–42, 45, 209

The applicant asks for 60 ft plus rooftop equipment, “consistent with” neighboring industrial buildings (p. 40). The KBA says the adjacent warehouses were held to 40 ft (p. 255). Draft condition 8a sets 45 ft, including rooftop equipment and parapets (p. 15). The applicant’s Aug 19 letter still argues for 60 ft.

The HRAB recommended denial, 7-1, at its April 17 meeting, citing core battlefield impacts. If approved, it asked for a 45-ft cap including rooftop, NPS-standard earth tones, Phase II archaeology, and no disturbance at sites 44FK1076 and 44FK1077 (p. 234).

The applicant says the site is “not proximate to any existing or planned public parks” and has no forestland on or next to it (p. 43). The KBA says two battles launched from “Barton’s Woods where the data center is to be located” (p. 253).

Sources: BOS packet pp. 15, 40, 43, 234, 253–255

“Barton’s Woods where the data center is to be located.”

Kernstown Battlefield Association letter, June 15, 2026 (p. 253)

Ambient was measured Oct 22–23, 2025: Apple Valley Rd 63–64 dB(A) daytime, Rt. 37 67–68 dB(A). Nighttime spot checks covered Apple Valley Rd only, “due to safety concerns after dark” (pp. 38, 100).

Draft condition 5a caps operation at 65 day / 60 night, in both dB(A) and dB(C) (p. 14). Addendum 2 predicts 70 dB(A) daytime at the Southwest line and 66 at the North line, inclusive of ambient (p. 133). The predictions are in the table below.

Salas O’Brien calls its equipment selection “preliminary” and says it “will undergo substantial changes” (p. 133). Trinity Consultants, the County’s third-party reviewer, found the 60-ft vs 45-ft differences “fairly minimal” (p. 7).

Sources: BOS packet pp. 7, 14, 38, 100, 133

The applicant proposes a “closed-loop, air-cooled” water/propylene glycol system, with demand highest in winter for humidification, under an absolute cap of 35,000 gal/day of public water, no wells (pp. 14, 42).

Frederick Water can serve 35,000 GPD maximum and recommends a condition to that effect. But its Feb 19 support assumes a closed-loop system with “no seasonal changes” (p. 237); it warned that an air-cooled system swings seasonally, asked for peak daily demand, and guaranteed no capacity (pp. 236–238).

The KBA relies on three wells and reports hearing water figures from 35,000 to 300,000 GPD (p. 253). There is no groundwater or karst study, a point raised by Planning Commission speakers (p. 17).

Sources: BOS packet pp. 14, 17, 42, 236–238, 253

The draft ordinance (pp. 256–259) is pre-drafted as an approval, with the vote block marked “Pending.” It carries staff’s 11 conditions word for word.

The applicant’s site assessment and Lawson letter refer to “Conditions of Approval (dated August 7, 2026)” (pp. 36, 44). That document is not in the packet.

Not in the 11 conditions: power for initial energization kept within existing Rt. 37 easements; cooling leak detection, isolation valves and sumps; spent coolant hauled off-site, never to sewer; secondary fuel containment and an SPCC plan; alternating generator tests; 10% greenscape on Apple Valley Rd facades; sound-attenuating parapets; lowered grading; and the applicant’s support for the standard business personal property rate.

Drafting errors: condition 5a cites §165-705.01(A)(5)(ii), but (A) as quoted has only (1)–(3). Condition 9a(iv) refers to a “10-foot-wide landscape screen described above” that is not described above. Condition 6 is headed “Gound Mounted.”

Sources: BOS packet pp. 10–16, 22, 24, 36–44, 256–259

MuniCap projects $7,273,803 a year in general fund revenue at stabilization, versus $550,590 for an industrial comparison. $4,446,844 of that is business personal property tax, at a $1.25 rate whose cited source is a 2020 Northern Virginia Daily article (pp. 201, 208).

At the standard BPP rate the applicant claims “over $9 million” more a year (p. 37), but also “roughly $14.25 million” total; $7.27M plus $9M is $16.27M. The site assessment and the Gorove memo give different trip reductions: 1,925 versus 2,173 daily (pp. 37, 191).

Sources: MuniCap analysis pp. 201–209, 226; Gorove Slade memo pp. 190–191; site assessment p. 37

The KBA, an adjoiner, says staff’s May 26 notice letter arrived after the June 9 work session (p. 253).

On the application form, “Other interested parties” is left blank (p. 26). The application is signed by Darius E. Saeidi as Manager of Winchester Advisors LLC, Manager of Winchester Gateway LLC (p. 29).

The applicant’s outreach memo lists a Loudoun bus tour, attended by 7 residents, on June 24, then describes it as July 6, the same date it gives for the Fellowship Bible Church meeting (p. 34). Staff gives the PC hearing date as September 2 in some places and September 3 in others. VDOT’s comment is dated Feb 5, 2024, in a 2026 review cycle (p. 3).

Written opposition in the packet includes the KBA (June 15) and Woodbrook Village residents (May 18), who oppose a hyperscale data center near established housing, raise low-frequency noise, and ask for an independent, applicant-funded impact analysis (pp. 245–255).

Sources: BOS packet pp. 3, 4, 10, 16–17, 26, 29, 31–35, 245–255