Loudoun streamlines approval process for data centers

Published April 7, 2014 by Jessica Sabbath

Loudoun County has streamlined the process for data centers to establish themselves in the county.

The county’s Board of Supervisors has approved a zoning amendment that adds data centers as a permitted use under five of the county’s commercial zoning districts.

“The approval of the zoning amendment will reduce the time and cost to build data centers in Loudoun County,” Loudoun Economic Development Director Buddy Rizer said in a statement. “We’ve made it better – and even easier – for companies to operate in the largest data center hub in America.”

Loudoun already houses many data centers for major technology companies, including Facebook, Amazon, Google and Microsoft. “Data Center Alley” has more than 50 data centers and 1 million square feet of additional data center space is expected to be complete by the end of 2015.

More than 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic flows through the county each day, according to Loudoun.