As council members from Archbald and Jessup grapple with the process of potentially bringing data centers to their municipalities, Buddy Rizer, executive director of economic development for Loudoun County in Virginia — dubbed “Data Center Alley” — offered some suggestions to consider before moving forward with specific projects.
“The first thing I tell everyone is if you’re thinking about data centers, define your opportunity up front,” he said. “Determine if you want them, where you want them, and how many you want. You need to be thoughtful and determine under what conditions you’d want them. We didn’t do that — we were kind of desperate and happy to take any money that was coming in the door. You have the opportunity to learn from all the things we’ve learned from 19 years.”
It’s also critical to have a good grasp of the anticipated economic boost from each data center, Rizer added.
“I understood everything about my tax code before I proposed to the board what the impacts were going to be financially,” he said.
Rizer noted it’s vital to realize when adding more data centers might interfere with other uses for property.
“You have to know when to say when, and I think that’s important,” he said. “Around 2019, we started to see warning signs that maybe we had extended a little further than what we had wanted to do. We haven’t been proactively trying to attract data centers for six years now. We’re still building them, but we want to make sure there are types of land leftover for others.”
Additionally, Rizer stressed something you have to turn down a project if they potential drawbacks outweigh the potential benefits.
“If you can integrate it into the community, it’s a huge win,” he said. “I would stay away as far away from homes as you can and I would stay as close to power lines as you can. You don’t want to create a situation where it’s going to be a no win.”