Goochland Board of Supervisors Grapples with Accusations of Undisclosed Data Center Contract

Serious accusations were leveled over the weekend from within the Goochland Board of Supervisors (BoS) in relation to the TOD proposal.

In response to a FOIA request, District 5 Supervisor Jonathan Lyle shared an email he sent to his fellow board members concerning the 900 acres adjoining Richmond County Club, Creekmore, and Mosaic. This land was added to the TOD/TZ footprint after the initial community meeting in July and has been the source of much contention from residents.

In his email, Lyle claims there is a contract between the landowners and an unnamed developer for an eight building, two-million-square-foot data center contingent on their land being included in the TOD.

Lyle goes on to claim that other supervisors had received “non-NDA” information about the proposal, which was not shared with him because he opposed adding the 900 acres to the TOD and that a representative of the landowners refused to discuss the matter because he knew Lyle opposed it.

In his email, he asks detailed questions of his fellow supervisors about their knowledge of the alleged contract/proposal, including the identity of the users of the data center.

“Beyond Board members knowing this, I believe this is important information for Goochland’s citizens to know as well. I can no longer say that I am not aware of any contracts or data center plans that exist for the 900+ acres. Unless I am massively wrong, there is a contract, and there are conceptual plans for a data center campus…”

“None of us want the appearance of decisions being made out of the public’s purvey [sic]. Rezoning decisions are always public. The impact of every rezoning is in the open, and details are discussed. This TOD process short circuits that open, transparent process. And an applicant unwilling to share information with a Board member who will be voting on this TOD is seriously concerning.”

Lyle goes on to state that he supports reverting to the July TOD/TZ map without the 900 acres for the final TOD/TZ, which is scheduled to be addressed by the supervisors on November 6.

“Including the 900+ Acres in the TOD on Nov 6th creates issues. It will not solve them.”

If the Goochland BoS reverts to the July map without including the 900+ acres, that would likely derail the landowners’ plans to sell the property to a data center developer. They would have to go through a normal zoning process like any other property transaction outside of the TOD.