Data centers in Harrisonburg, Virginia: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Harrisonburg's data center is not a proposal. The 13-acre Cyber Integration Center has been running for more than a decade; Washington, D.C.-based DBT-DATA bought it in October 2013 as its fifth data center, alongside four in Ashburn, Virginia Business reported at the time. The company said it was then the only data center in Maryland and Virginia with a Tier III certification from the Uptime Institute, and it carried LEED Silver certification. DBT Development's president, David Tolson, pitched it at federal government and private sector demand for data storage around Washington. It is a colocation building of the older kind, not a hyperscale AI campus.

What Harrisonburg has done is shut the door to the new kind arriving without a public hearing. In January 2025 the city council changed its zoning so that data centers can be built only in the industrial district and only with a special use permit, which requires public hearings and a council vote; before that, they had been allowed by right in industrial and some business zones. Community development director Adam Fletcher told council that data centers bring tax revenue but also noise, the visual impact of large, monolithic buildings, and heavy demand for water and electricity. "We need to figure out what works, what we can require," said council member Laura Dent, who raised the strain data centers elsewhere in Virginia were putting on the grid. City spokesperson Michael Parks told WHSV the aim was for residents to have their say on "if they think a project fits in their community, near their neighborhood, if it's the right use of resources."

The rest of the Shenandoah Valley is now doing the same, mostly before any developer arrives. Shenandoah County's supervisors voted 6-0 in June 2026 to require a special use permit for data centers, with rules on water, noise, setbacks and environmental impact, and rejected residents' calls for a moratorium. "Other counties have been overrun with them," said supervisor Steve Baker. Augusta County, to the south, was drafting an ordinance for a public hearing this summer; its administrator, Timothy Fitzgerald, said "the key here is to try to get out in front of any kind of major push." Further north, Frederick County has applications for the 72-acre Winchester Gateway campus and the 220-acre Virginia Technology Park near Interstate 81, and its planning commission unanimously recommended denying the Technology Park rezoning in June. The Shenandoah Valley Partnership, the regional economic development group, withdrew a grant application to find data center sites after consultants told it most developer interest in the valley had not got beyond feasibility studies.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.