Project Tallmadge data center, Strasburg, Virginia

Project Tallmadge, a data center campus that Takanock plans on 87 acres in the Strasburg Industrial Park near Interstate 81's Exit 296, would make its own power with on-site natural gas turbines, and it has drawn steady opposition in Strasburg, in Shenandoah County, Virginia. The town treats the data center as a use allowed by right, so Strasburg's council has no zoning vote on it, and residents have turned to the state's air permits instead.

Data Center Dynamics reported that Takanock is proposing a 180MW campus and will bring 400MW of on-site natural gas generation, and its fact sheet puts the remaining permits and the start of construction in the third quarter of 2027. The Northern Virginia Daily reported the campus would cost $4.5 billion; the site plan reviewed by the town labels each of its two buildings a "160 MW-IT" data center, and the town expects Takanock to file a revised plan. Takanock was founded in 2023 by Kenneth Davies, founder of Google Energy, and is funded by DigitalBridge; Davies also co-founded Birch Infrastructure and its Rowan data center unit.

Mayor Brandy Hawkins Boies has said Takanock bought the land in 2024, when "data processing" was permitted by right, and that "The by-right determination was not a policy decision made by this council". The council has since required special-use permits for data centers, effective July 1, 2025, but Project Tallmadge proceeds under the earlier ordinance. Former council member Seth Newman, who served when that ordinance was adopted, disputed the town's reading: "Back then, data processing meant an office building with a lot of cubicles," he said. "It did not mean an industrial 320-megawatt power plant."

About 200 residents went through a bag search to attend a town forum at Strasburg High School on June 15, 2026, where an 11-member panel answered 56 questions chosen in advance. Takanock chief commercial officer Craig McKesson promised, "We are going to be a net supplier of power to your community," and said of the river, "It will not impact the Shenandoah River". The company's own water figures varied: a handout listed 2,000 to 4,000 gallons a day, a display board 4,000 to 8,000, and McKesson said the first fill of the closed-loop cooling would take about 300,000 gallons, down from an earlier estimate of about 4 million. Kyle Hart of the National Parks Conservation Association said: "You're essentially getting a natural gas plant at that site, which will operate full time".

The fight has moved to the air permits. Resident Paula Knight said in July that she had filed an objection to Takanock's request that the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality treat the power plant separately from the data center, and that Takanock had applied for initial air permits for 80 diesel generators for the first data center. Knight argued that the 10-turbine gas plant "would not be constructed on this exact 86-acre lot in Strasburg but for the concurrent development of the adjacent data center," and asked DEQ to review the two as one source. At the forum, DEQ regional director Brandon Kiracofe said the state needs a form signed by the locality certifying whether the project suits the area before it acts on the turbines' air permit: "Until we have that form that's signed by the locality, we will not take any action on the air permit application". Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative said a new substation and distribution equipment would be needed, at the project's cost.

At a July 2026 council meeting, 18 people spoke after Boies turned down calls to remove data centers from the zoning ordinance altogether, saying a blanket ban "is unlikely to withstand legal challenge". Zachary Walters said the opposition group had grown from 800 to 1,700 members in 25 days: "We will not stop until they cancel this project". Tammy Ruggiero asked the town to form a resident working group instead of relying on three-minute comments: "Sit down with people."

What happens next: Takanock's revised site plan goes to the town's planning staff, DEQ decides the air permits, and the Strasburg Town Council, led by Mayor Boies, decides whether to sign the locality form DEQ needs for the turbines. Shenandoah County has said construction could start in late 2027 and finish around 2030.