Zoning Questions: Is a Data Center Even an Allowed Use?

Before anyone argues about noise or water, somebody has to answer a dull question: does the zoning code allow a data center on this parcel at all? The answer decides whether there is a public hearing, which standards apply and how much say neighbors get. And in a lot of counties written before 2020, the code never mentions data centers.

Reading the use table

Most zoning codes have a use table: uses down the side, zones across the top, and a letter in each cell. The letters vary by code, but the meanings are close to universal.

Use (invented Brindle County code)	AG	RR	C-2	M-1	M-2
Warehouse and distribution			P	P	P
Light manufacturing			C	P	P
Public utility facility	C	C	C	P	P
Data center	Not listed

P means permitted by right: staff approve it if it meets the written standards, no hearing. C means conditional: allowed only after a hearing and with conditions. A blank means prohibited. In Idaho, the state enabling law calls conditional approval a special use permit (Idaho Code 67-6512), though many local codes still say conditional use permit.

Now the hard part. Data center is not listed. The county can handle that gap in several ways, and each one produces a different public process.

Path	What happens	Public hearing?	Who it affects
Similar use determination	The planning director rules a data center is "like" a warehouse or utility facility	Usually no, but often appealable	This parcel, and every later applicant who cites the ruling
Rezone	The parcel moves to a zone where the chosen category is allowed, often AG to M-1 or M-2	Yes	This parcel
Special or conditional use permit	The parcel stays in its zone; the use is allowed with conditions	Yes	This parcel
Text amendment	A "data center" row is added to the use table, with standards	Yes	Every parcel in every zone the new row covers

Why the warehouse label matters

Say Brindle County's planning director decides a data center is a warehouse. Warehouses are permitted by right in C-2, M-1 and M-2. The developer can now build in a commercial zone next to houses with no hearing.

The warehouse standards were written for trucks and storage. They cover loading docks, parking ratios and maybe hours for deliveries. They say nothing about cooling equipment running 24 hours a day, a yard of diesel generators, a fuel farm, or a substation. A data center has fewer trucks than a warehouse after construction and far more mechanical noise. The category fits the building shell and misses everything that makes neighbors call the county.

The utility label has the opposite problem. Some codes allow utility facilities nearly everywhere, because nobody wants to forbid a pump station. Calling a 200 MW campus a utility facility can open agricultural and residential zones.

That is why counties with long experience have written their own categories and standards. Loudoun County, Virginia, at the center of the Northern Virginia data center market, voted on March 18, 2025 to end by-right approval entirely. Each new data center there now needs a special exception, which means hearings before the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. The county's second phase, still underway as of October 2026, is writing use-specific standards for data centers and utility substations. Next door, Fairfax County adopted its amendment on September 10, 2024. Among its terms:

• Data center buildings at least 200 feet from an adjacent residential lot line, unless a special exception allows less.
• Generators and similar equipment 300 feet from a residential lot line, or shielded from it by the building.
• At least one mile from a Metro station, to save land near transit for other uses.
• Pre- and post-construction noise studies showing compliance with the county noise ordinance.
• All equipment enclosed or screened by a wall or similar barrier.

Kent County, Delaware went further in July 2026: 300 feet from residentially zoned land for buildings, and 400 feet for generators, cooling towers and chillers (300 feet if housed in a noise-reducing building).

Setbacks eat land fast

Height, substations and the things beside the building

Many data center buildings are one or two stories with tall floor heights, and rooftop cooling equipment adds more. Where land is scarce, developers build multi-story data centers. Ask for the height to the top of rooftop equipment, not just the roof deck. In Idaho, height also changes who gets notice: Idaho Code 67-6512 requires mailed notice out to at least three times the allowed height for special use permits on structures over 100 feet, and at least one mile for unincorporated structures 400 feet or taller.

Then there is everything outside the building:

• Substation. A campus of hundreds of megawatts usually needs its own high-voltage substation. Some codes treat substations as utility uses allowed in many zones. Ask whether the substation is part of this application or will come later through a separate utility approval, and who will own it.
• Transmission lines. New lines may cross other parcels and need their own permits and easements.
• Generator yard and fuel storage. Fire code and air permits apply, but zoning decides where on the site they sit.
• Battery storage. Large lithium-ion installations raise fire-separation questions the zoning code may not address.

Notice: the boring step that can void everything

Idaho's notice rules for land-use decisions are specific. For a rezone, Idaho Code 67-6511 requires mailed notice to owners within 300 feet, posting on the site at least a week before the hearing, and, when 200 or more owners are involved and the county has no alternative procedure, a display ad at least 4 inches by 2 columns in the official newspaper at least 15 days ahead. Special use permits under 67-6512 need published notice at least 15 days before the hearing, the same 300-foot mailing and posting a week ahead.

Skipping a step is not a technicality. In Virginia, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors rezoned about 1,790 acres for the Prince William Digital Gateway in December 2023, after a 29-hour hearing. The project would have covered about 2,100 acres next to Manassas National Battlefield Park with about 23 million square feet of data centers. In August 2025 a circuit judge voided the rezoning: a required newspaper ad never ran, later ads did not meet the legal timing, and the documents were not available for public review in time. The Virginia Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in late March 2026. The county withdrew its defense on April 14, co-developer Compass declined further appeals, and QTS dropped its appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia on July 2, 2026. One of the largest data center projects ever proposed in the United States died over a newspaper schedule.