WYTHE CO., Va. – Wythe County held its third community input meeting on a proposed zoning ordinance Thursday, and while data centers were not the main agenda item, they were on many residents’ minds.
Wythe is one of a small number of Virginia counties without any countywide zoning laws. That means companies can currently buy land and develop data centers or other industrial projects with few local restrictions in place.
A third attempt at zoning
Previous efforts to adopt countywide zoning in Wythe County have twice failed to gain traction. Andy Kegley, chairperson of Preserve Wythe and a former county supervisor, said this attempt feels different.
“This is the third attempt that I know of to write a county-wide zoning ordinance,” Kegley said. “And this time it feels like there’s a non-partisan or bipartisan interest in getting one established.”
Wythe County Public Information Officer Allyson Williams said the most recent prior attempt came roughly two decades ago.
“The last time was around like 2002, I believe — so 25-ish years ago — and it didn’t get much traction,” Williams said. “Then around three years ago, the Planning Commission and the board of supervisors kind of tasked staff to start developing an ordinance. And that was in response to solar developments.”
Data center already in development
Wythe County already has one data center in the pipeline. The SolisArx facility is planned for Progress Park, a collection of industrial sites roughly 10 minutes from downtown Wytheville.
Williams noted that Progress Park operates under a set of covenants that function similarly to zoning for that specific area.
“Progress Park is our industrial park in the county,” Williams said. “It has covenants which kind of act as zoning for that area of land. So any development — we have Gatorade, Amcor, lots of industry there — anything that develops has to adhere to those covenants. They have noise regulations, stormwater regulations, all the things that you would expect to see in zoning.”
She added that the towns of Rural Retreat and Wytheville already have their own zoning laws in place, making Progress Park the only other area in the county with comparable land-use rules.
Zoning gap leaves door open
Williams warned that the absence of a countywide ordinance means industrial development can still move forward during the rulemaking process.
“If someone sold their property yesterday to an industrial development, they would still be able to move forward — assuming all their other permitting per the code of Virginia checks out,” she said. “It wouldn’t stop anything in development.”
County leaders say they do not want to rush the ordinance and want to hear from residents before finalizing any rules.
Neighboring county offers a model
Pulaski County, which has its own zoning laws, has explored the idea of attracting a data center — but its ordinance restricts that type of development to the New River Valley Commerce Park in Dublin.
Pulaski County Administrator Jonathan Sweet said zoning gives communities a framework for managing large-scale investment.
“It’s something that communities are now looking at — how do we protect our citizens, how do we protect our resources?” Sweet said. “How do we ensure that there is a balance where we’re inviting to those types of investments, but they’re also going to be good stewards?”
Sweet also said data centers are worth considering as part of a broader economic strategy — but not as a singular focus.
“Data centers, cloud computing, quantum computing, machine learning — this isn’t something that you put all your eggs in, but it is a part of diversifying your economy,” he said.
Sweet compared zoning to a familiar concept: traffic laws.
“If you think about zoning, it’s kind of like driving on a road with a speed limit,” he said. “You feel safer knowing what the limits are. Same thing with zoning — you come into a community and you sort of know what the rules are.”