Five Richmond-area sites filed for data center buildings in Q3, two of them campuses of up to 900 MW, as counties moved to limit new projects.

Google, Iron Mountain and a Hanover landowner filed for new buildings and Tract affiliates for two campuses of up to 900 MW, while counties around Richmond moved to slow new projects.

What happened this quarter

Five sites filed for new data center buildings

Five sites filed for new data center buildings in the county records reviewed for Q3. Google filed permits on 17 July and 14 August for the shells of the second and third buildings at its Project Peanut campus in Chester. Iron Mountain filed a site plan on 15 September for the third building of its approved White Oak campus in Henrico. In Hanover, a site plan filed on 9 July proposes three buildings totalling 396,000 square feet on Binns Road near Doswell. Tract affiliates filed two campus applications that each describe up to 900 MW, in Goochland and Dinwiddie. Separately, QTS sought wetland approval for Data Center Building 5 on its existing RIC5 campus in Henrico.

Tract's two campuses await county acceptance

The applicants describe themselves as affiliates of Tract Capital Management, and their applications cover about 867 acres off Route 288 in Goochland and about 987 acres on White Oak Road in Dinwiddie. Goochland received a conditional use application on 5 August, largely inside the technology overlay district it adopted in November 2025, and its 20 August letter listed 21 items still needed, including the applicant's correct legal name. Dinwiddie received a rezoning application over the 4 July weekend. Neither county had accepted its application as complete, so neither has a hearing date.

Hanover is reviewing a by-right plan while it drafts limits

Binns Road rests mainly on industrial land where data processing is allowed by right, and county planners told the applicant that nothing for the data center may sit on the 14-acre agricultural parcel inside its boundary. Hanover began drafting data center rules on 12 June. On 24 September staff proposed that data centers over 20,000 square feet need a conditional use permit, and their slide said one site plan already under review would need one under that approach, with grandfathering undecided. The slide does not name the plan. On 20 August the Planning Commission voted 5 to 2, according to draft minutes, to recommend the Iron Horse rezoning near Ashland.

Counties and the state moved to slow new projects

Two county boards adopted new rules or positions on large projects. New Kent's supervisors on 13 July dropped a proposed technology overlay district and stated a strong preference that no new data center use permit applications be filed while the county writes standards. Dinwiddie's supervisors on 21 July required a sound assessment, a review of effects on resources and a description of substations and transmission voltage with any rezoning or permit for a facility needing 100 MW or more, citing state law. A 26 August staff update told Chesterfield's supervisors, who have required a conditional use permit for new data centers since January, that they had indicated they would not support more. On 18 September Executive Order 22 ended state site-readiness and expedited-review help for new projects expected to draw 25 MW or more.

Sites filing to add data center capacity, by quarter

What to watch next

1. 28 October 2026. The Iron Horse applicant asked Hanover's Board of Supervisors to hear its rezoning on this date. Published record.
2. November 2026. Hanover's committee is scheduled to review draft data center ordinance changes, with a 45-day public comment period planned for January 2027. Published record.
3. By 17 March 2027. Executive Order 22's deadline for DEQ recommendations on backup generators, a cooling-water rulemaking timeline and a noise-rule workplan. Published record.

The records behind the findings

Sources and revisions

Every figure links to the public record it came from: a site plan, a building permit, a zoning case, a county meeting record, a state permit or a federal notice. News coverage is named as news and never stands in for a record. This edition is final. Its figures change only by a dated correction. A correction will name the record it changes.

Colocation Scout is run by a wholesale and colocation consultant. The permit data is public and every row links to its filing. How we publish these reports.

Revisions: none yet. Edition status: final.

Cite this report as: Colocation Scout, "Richmond data center filings, Q3 2026," colocationscout.com/reports/richmond-data-center-permits-q3-2026.html