The Town of Orange Planning Commission will host a public hearing Tuesday pertaining to data centers and schools.
The planning commission is currently discussing zoning ordinance revisions, a conversation that has been occurring for months and will continue to occur into the future. However, according to town staff, there are some proposed amendments dealing with data centers that are “pertinent given recent inquiries that have brought to light ordinance provisions that are outdated, lacking or potentially inconsistent with desired land use policies.”
The amendments would modify items in Articles 5 and 14 of the zoning ordinance. These include removing data centers as a by-right use in the traditional town center (TTC) zoning district and changing them from by-right to requiring a special use permit in the town activity center (TAC), rural commercial (RC) and traditional industrial zoning districts (TI). Data centers are not permitted in the rural residential (RR), traditional residential low density (TR-L) and traditional residential high density (TR-H) districts.
Amendments are also proposed for the definitions of data centers and schools. The current data center definition is said to be “inconsistent with current data center function and purpose” and would be replaced by “A use involving a building/premise in which the majority of the use is occupied by computers and/or telecommunications and related equipment, including supporting equipment and other associated components related to digital data operations where information is processed, transferred and/or stored.”
As for schools, this change is not related to data centers and was instead spurred by a recent inquiry regarding opening a cooking school in town. The amended school definition would have two additional sections added including “unlicensed instruction for children and adults in a group setting in the arts, vocational and hobby activities and academic tutoring” and “post-secondary curriculum and instruction.”
Following the close of the public hearing, the commission will decide if it would like to recommend the amendments to the town council for approval. The meeting will also include a discussion of a draft data center policy, continued discussion of subdivision ordinance revisions and a report on the recent comprehensive plan community survey.
The meeting will be held Tuesday, Jan. 13 at 6 p.m. in the Town of Orange Community Meeting Room, 235 Warren Street, Orange. In addition to in-person comments, folks can submit written comments for the public hearing in advance via email to townplanner@townoforangeva.org.
