Spotsylvania Planners Back a 555-Acre, $8 Billion Data Center Campus

The Spotsylvania County Planning Commission voted 4-2 last week to recommend approval of the Crossroads Technology Campus, a 555-acre data center project in the county's Lee Hill District. In a separate 4-2 vote at the same meeting, commissioners found the project consistent with the county's comprehensive plan. The special-use permit, case SUP26-0003, now moves to the Board of Supervisors for a public hearing and a final vote.

WJLA reported the complex as an Amazon Web Services project carrying an estimated $8 billion investment and roughly $30 million a year in local tax revenue. The applicant of record is RCK Digital Crossroads LLC. The footprint shrank from 633 acres to 555 after the developer accepted a minimum 300-foot vegetated buffer around neighboring homes, one of more than 50 conditions attached to the recommendation. Spotsylvania taxes data center equipment at $1.25 per $100 of assessed value, compared with $4.15 in Loudoun County, a gap that keeps pulling hyperscale development south from Northern Virginia's core, about 70 miles from Ashburn.

The electrical scope starts at the fence line. The plan includes dedicated on-site electrical substations and banks of backup generators serving a multi-building campus. The Baxtel data center listing describes eight buildings delivered in phases, with the first targeted for 2029 and expansions running through 2035. That sequence produces years of overlapping work: high-voltage substation construction, medium-voltage distribution across the site, switchgear and UPS lineups inside each building, generator paralleling and fuel systems, grounding, and commissioning as each hall is energized. Backup generation on this scale also means permanent maintenance and testing work once the buildings are running, a long tail of service jobs that outlasts construction.

Phased hyperscale campuses change how contractors staff. Instead of a single peak and demobilization, a buildout stretched over six or more years keeps foremen, journeymen, and apprentices on one site through several building cycles. In Virginia, that work is performed under tradesman licenses issued through the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, and the same pool of licensed electricians is already committed to projects in Loudoun and Prince William counties. A project that moves the market 70 miles south competes for that labor or pulls new workers into the Fredericksburg region.

The recommendation did not come quietly. Residents told commissioners the buildings would still reach 75 feet in height, raised concerns about generator noise and property values, and questioned the revenue projections. One resident said the commission was selling out its neighbors for projections rather than actual numbers. Published coverage of the vote has not stated a megawatt figure for the campus, which leaves the size of the eventual utility interconnection as the largest open number in the project.

The Board of Supervisors now holds the deciding vote on whether the campus proceeds, and on the conditions that will shape the work if it does.