Virginia’s Loudoun County, the global heart of the data center industry, is to temporarily block new applications to develop facilities in the area after officials voted in favor of a moratorium.

The county board of supervisors this week voted 7-1 on a motion to pause data center applications for 12 months.

The pause takes effect immediately.

Supervisor Kristen Umstattd of the Leesburg district voting against it and Supervisor Caleb Kershner of the Catoctin district abstained.

"For years, I have been pushing for Loudoun County to get a handle on data center growth.

Last night, the Board finally took decisive action our constituents have been demanding,” said Algonkian District Supervisor Juli E. Briskman, who brought forward the proposals.

“This pause is a major step forward. Now we have the breathing room required to complete the critical work of revising our regulations to protect our communities.”

Loudoun is home to hundreds of data centers totaling gigawatts of capacity. Ashford is home to ‘Data Center Alley’ where many facilities from some of the largest technology companies in the world are clustered together.

As with the hundreds of other moratoriums being introduced across the US, officials hope to use the time to quantify the impact of data centers on local residents and resources and create more permanent controls around data centers to reduce any potential harm.

A motion to explore the legality of a data center moratorium and add a set-up for this week’s pause passed in July. A permanent ban was deemed unworkable under Virginia law.

County staff will return to the board at its October 20 business meeting with a formal resolution memorializing the pause.

The county had already removed data centers as a by-right zoning option, and is exploring removing by-right status to projects that were previously grandfathered in.