January 10, 2025 - A planning commission in a Virginia county has voted unanimously to recommend denial of a rezoning application from Balico LLC, an industrial developer seeking to build multiple natural gas-fired generation units as part of a large data center campus.

The Pittsylvania County planning commission voted Jan. 7 to deny Virginia-based Balico permission to proceed with the $8.85-billion project. Balico recently had revised its plan for the complex, reducing the size from more than 2,200 acres to about 760 acres. The company in October of last year had asked the county to allow rezoning of the acreage from agricultural to industrial.

Balico in its initial application provided plans showing a complex featuring several mobile gas turbines, a permanent natural gas-fired power plant, and multiple data centers. POWER had reported that the site could include as much as 3,500 MW of gas-fired generation capacity.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership has said the state is the largest data center market in the world. The group said Virginia is home to 35%, our about 150, of all known hyperscale data centers worldwide.

Residents in the area of the proposed complex have pushed back against the project, in part due to concerns about losing farmland. An application filed for the project shows that acreage would be adjacent to more than 100 property owners.

The county’s Board of Supervisors is expected to make a final decision on the project on Feb. 18. As the five-hour board meeting on Tuesday was wrapping up, Steven Gould, the attorney representing Balico, asked the planning commission to hold off for at least one month before making a recommendation to the Pittsylvania Board of Supervisors about approval or denial of the rezoning request. “There is no harm in receiving more information,” Gould said. “There is no harm in additional consideration.”

Colette Henderson, vice chair of the planning commission, moved to recommend denying the project, with the motion supported unanimously by the commission members. “The reason is because I feel there has been a lack of transparency,” Henderson said.

Revised Plans

Balico in November of last year said it would revise its original plans. Irfan Ali, founder and managing member of the company, in a statement at that time said, “To be clear, we are not abandoning the project.” Ali’s comments came after the Herndon-based company held two community meetings with residents during the last week of October.

“Based on those discussions, we have identified assorted changes to our plan that we believe will address many questions posed and, at the same time, improve our proposal,” Ali said.

Balico’s statement in November said area business leaders were supportive of the data center project, which the company said would provide as many as 700 high-paying jobs. The company’s statement said, “They recognize the transformative economic impact that this project, which includes a dedicated power source, could have on the region. Especially its potential to generate millions [of dollars] for education, recreation, and public safety while also keeping property taxes low for residents across the county.”

Commissioners on Tuesday voted before the public hearing to remove one of the land parcels from Balico’s revised application, which included 14 parcels totaling 763 acres, down from the original 47 parcels totaling 2,233 acres in the first application from October. The total acreage in the new request was 747 acres across 13 land parcels.

Gould on Tuesday said Balico would still prefer to pursue a project of the original size at some point.

Rezoning to Allow Industrial Use

An agenda for Tuesday’s meeting said Balico was requesting 13 parcels be rezoned from agricultural and residential suburban to heavy industry. The company’s new plan calls for 12 data center buildings (down from an original 84) and a 3,500-MW natural gas-fired power plant.

The original documents filed with the county showed the site would have 15 Mitsubishi FT8 Mobilepac mobile gas turbines, each capable of generating 30 MW of electricity. The original plan also included a second-phase development that would include a permanent gas-fired power plant featuring multiple Mitsubishi M501JAC gas turbines, in a simple-cycle configuration. Mitsubishi rates the M501JAC as generating 330 MW to 453 MW in standalone configuration.

Drawings of the site filed as part of the original application showed a switchyard and electrical substation, and also include a wastewater treatment facility. The documents also showed easements for gas pipelines. The 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline, which carries natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale plays, runs near the site and was mentioned in the application.

Balico also was behind plans to build the 1.6-GW Chickahominy power plant in Virginia, a project that was abandoned in 2022 amid opposition from several groups. The company wanted to build a natural gas pipeline across six counties to supply the plant. PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator, canceled an interconnection request from the company in that same year, citing a lack of progress in meeting development deadlines.