AWS Stevensburg (Culpeper) data center, Culpeper County, Virginia

Amazon Web Services is building a $500 million data center campus on 243 acres along Route 3 in Stevensburg, in eastern Culpeper County, Virginia, on a former horse farm. The Board of Supervisors approved rezoning the land from agricultural to light industrial in April 2022, by a 4 to 3 vote, after the Planning Commission recommended denial. The approved plan calls for two buildings totaling about 445,000 square feet, a six-acre Dominion substation and a new transmission line.

Nearly 40 people spoke against the project at the supervisors' hearing. "We're here to protect peoples' investments," said Supervisor Susan Gugino, who voted no. Neighbors then sued in Culpeper County Circuit Court, arguing the rezoning was illegal spot zoning; landowner Alan Davis said he would go from "looking at horses in pastures" to "a 50-foot building with lights and security fencing." The circuit court had not ruled on the case as of the last local reporting.

The State Corporation Commission has final approval of the new transmission line; supervisors asked Dominion in 2023 to use a shorter southern route to spare farmland. Gugino later said the county had approved the rezoning "in a most expedited fashion" without weighing its effects. County planning director Sam McLearen said Amazon has built a berm along most of Route 3 as required, with landscaping still to come.

The site borders Salubria, an 18th century manor on the National Register of Historic Places, and sits across Route 3 from the Brandy Station battlefield; the Piedmont Environmental Council said the project would significantly alter the historic landscape. Construction on the first building was under way by October 2024, with Amazon hiring technicians who need Top Secret security clearances.