<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1qd5gy_0vj7bHen00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1qd5gy_0vj7bHen00" width="1763" height="1176" ><figcaption>Construction along Hiddenwood Lane and the approved surrounding data centers is making living along the gravel road unsustainable, according to residents. Hanna Pampaloni/Loudoun Now</figcaption></figure>Residents along Hiddenwood lane have been working for months to have their land rezoned to permit data centers – allowing them to sell their homes and escape the encroaching data center park surrounding them.The application received narrow support from the Planning Commission in May after a three-hour discussion and County Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) and Supervisor Matthew F. Letourneau (R-Dulles), who represent the residents, have labeled it as the most difficult land use case to ever come before them.Members of the Hiddenwood Assemblage have cited declining quality of life as zoning decisions made by county leaders allowed data centers to be built around their neighborhood.Their application to rezone the land from Countryside Residential–1 to Planned Development–Industrial Park envisions three data centers totaling 756,024 square feet.The application is opposed by community members of the neighboring Briarfield Estates who say permitting new data centers at Hiddenwood would leave them surrounded on all four sides by the massive buildings, pushing the declining quality of life into their backyards.The application was scheduled for a final decision by the Board of Supervisors on Sept. 17, when Randall announced it had been deferred at the request of the Hiddenwood Assemblage.Letourneau said he was continuing to work with both neighborhoods.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2bmHSC_0vj7bHen00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2bmHSC_0vj7bHen00" width="1934" height="1072" ><figcaption>An overhead shot of the land proposed by the Hiddenwood Assemblage to be rezoned allowing the neighborhood to be redeveloped as a data center.&nbsp; County of Loudoun</figcaption></figure>“Certainly, when the applicant requested a deferral, I think in light of what the outcome was going to be, I’m more than happy to do that,” Letourneau said. “I’m more than happy to keep working to find what I hope to be a non-data center solution to this particular problem and exploring other options, exploring other ways to sort of get everybody to where they need to be, one way or the other.”“We deferred our application to allow us more time to work with board members,” an assemblage representative told Loudoun Now in an email. “Without an approval of our rezoning from the board, there are no other viable options that allow us to move on with our lives.”The residents added that noise from Dulles Airport and construction from Northstar Boulevard had also contributed to their declining quality of life.“The current single-family detached residential uses on the Hiddenwood parcels no longer make sense and a change in zoning is appropriate,” they stated.Hiddenwood residents said they are trying to mitigate the impacts that data centers on their land would have on Briarfield residents including increasing the setbacks between the centers to the neighborhood, lowering building heights, and expanding open space on the site. The application also includes an offer of $100,000 to Briarfield residents to use on landscape buffers.But Briarfield community members said allowing more data centers to be built would put them in the same position that Hiddenwood residents are now in, citing already dusty conditions from other data center construction to their north and west making it difficult for their children and grandchildren to walk and play outside.Randall said last week that the application has been deferred indefinitely.</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

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Hiddenwood Data Center Application Stalls

Residents along Hiddenwood lane have been working for months to have their land rezoned to permit data centers – allowing them to sell their homes and escape the encroaching data center park surrounding them. The application received narrow support from the Planning Commission in May after a three-hour discussion...