Loudoun Supervisors Table Data Center Grandfathering Audit 7-2 After County Warns of Up to $60M Liability; 2025 Grandfather Resolution Stays

At its October 6, 2026 business meeting, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors did not end the 2025 grandfathering resolution that lets data center applications filed before the March 2025 end of by-right approval proceed under the old rules. Per Data Center Frontier (published Oct. 14; the only account of the meeting found, so single-source), county officials warned that rescinding it could expose Loudoun to roughly $60 million in litigation costs and liabilities, and a proposed independent audit of whether individual projects still qualify (estimated at up to $200,000) was indefinitely tabled 7-2. At least 15 pending applications covering about 10.5 million square feet remain under the resolution. Before the meeting, Virginia Business (Sept. 3) reported 17 pending administrative applications, roughly 11 million square feet.

Loudoun is not waiting to “follow” Prince William; it ended by-right in March 2025. The question this event was meant to answer (does Loudoun follow Prince William’s lead?) carries a false premise: Loudoun’s Board made data centers a special-exception use on March 18, 2025, and the live fight is over the grandfathered pipeline that escaped that change. Prince William’s 90-day window and Loudoun’s grandfathering resolution are the same mechanism: a rule change that spares whatever was already in the queue. The separate up-to-12-month pause on final Board votes is set for decision on October 20, 2026.

Unverified: the vote count and the $60M figure rest on one trade-press account; no Loudoun minutes or Loudoun Now coverage of the meeting were retrieved.