NEW KENT — New Kent County residents who responded to a recent survey on what they want in their community overwhelmingly said no to data centers.
New Kent County hired government consultants the Berkley Group to work on updating the zoning and subdivision ordinance. Hundreds of residents took part in a survey which showed an 87% disapproval rate for data centers in the county.
Although New Kent has not considered any applications for data centers, it has drawn up a draft technology overlay district, which identified the Route 33 corridor as the optimal location for potential development. The draft policy would also allow a streamlined process for applications in the favored area.
The county has since been asked by the Board of Supervisors to draw up a separate policy for data centers.
Caroline Vanterve, a principal planner with the Berkley Group, described the results of the community survey to a work session with the Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission on June 29. The survey forms part of the ongoing zoning and subdivision ordinance update.
The Berkley Group gathered answers for the survey through workshops, focus groups, farmers’ market pop-ups and a community survey. The survey received 741 responses; 94% of them identified as residents. “The survey was around for a month-and-a-half and promoted pretty widely,” Vanterve said.
Data centers were the most discouraged land use, with 87% of respondents saying they would not encourage data centers in the county, Vanterve said.
The survey found 74% of respondents discouraged more vehicle tow yards, 71% truck stops and 60% self-storage facilities. The most encouraged uses were small-scale commercial development (89%), food trucks and mobile restaurants (88%), and outdoor commercial recreation (76%).
While the survey only represented about 3% of the population, Vanterve said it is challenging to get people excited about zoning. “Usually, for zoning surveys we are seeing 200-300 responses … this is the highest number of responses that I believe we have ever received for a zoning survey,” she said.
Vanterve said “no data centers” was repeated 17 times at the farmers’ market pop-ups held as part of the consultation.
The report from the consultants noted that new Virginia standards will require localities to request a noise assessment and electric utility assessment from proposed data centers.
“This requirement will be addressed through the ordinance update if data centers are introduced as a permitted use,” the report said.
Many survey respondents said they wanted New Kent to preserve its rural character by restricting new development to certain parts of the county.
David Macaulay, Davidmacaulayva@gmail.com