County Will Brief Supervisors on Data Centers Aug. 26. Two Ways to Weigh In, and One Deadline Is Sooner.

The Chesterfield Report·Aug 22, 2026

County Will Brief Supervisors on Data Centers Aug. 26. Two Ways to Weigh In, and One Deadline Is Sooner.

📍 Public Meeting Room, 10001 Iron Bridge Road, Chesterfield

TL;DR: Chesterfield staff will brief the Board of Supervisors on data center development during the evening portion of the board's meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 26. Residents can submit written questions first, but that form closes at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25, the day before. The Data Center Defiance Coalition plans a rally in the courtyard at 5:30 p.m. on the 26th.

The basics

What: County staff will present an update on data center development to the Board of Supervisors, and the county is collecting written questions from residents beforehand.

Who: The Board of Supervisors, county staff, and residents. The Data Center Defiance Coalition, which delivered a petition with more than 2,500 signatures to the board on July 22 calling on the county to stop signing nondisclosure agreements for data center projects, is organizing a rally beforehand.

When: Wednesday, Aug. 26. The board's meeting convenes at 2 p.m. and runs into the evening; the data center update is scheduled for the evening portion. The rally begins at 5:30 p.m. Written questions close at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25.

Where: Public Meeting Room, 10001 Iron Bridge Road, Chesterfield.

Why it matters: Google is building roughly $9 billion of data centers across three Chesterfield campuses, negotiated for years under nondisclosure agreements and confirmed publicly only in August 2025. Residents have pressed the county on water use, electricity costs and transparency at a series of meetings this summer. This is the board's scheduled update on all of it, and the first formal invitation for written questions.

How to submit a question

The county is taking written questions and concerns through a form on its data centers page. The form closes at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25.

Submit here: Submit Questions About Data Centers

That deadline is easy to miss. Anyone who plans only to show up on Wednesday will have passed the window for getting a question in ahead of the presentation.

The rally

The Data Center Defiance Coalition has organized a rally in the courtyard before the evening session, beginning at 5:30 p.m., with speakers and signs. Organizers say on the public event page that they want to "demand the county protect our community, not data centers."

The same group delivered its 2,500-signature petition at the board's July 22 meeting.

What the county says

On its data centers page, the county says it began pursuing data center investment as part of an economic development strategy aimed at generating commercial tax revenue.

On water, which has been among residents' most persistent questions, the county says that under the zoning for the Upper Magnolia Green and Watkins Centre properties, Google submitted what it calls the most comprehensive set of utility proffers in the county's history, including a cap on how much public water each site may use per day.

Google has previously declined to say how much water or electricity the three campuses will use. The Chesterfield Report sent questions about the projects to Google's press office on July 24 with a July 29 deadline; the company acknowledged the questions and did not answer them.

If you want to take part

Submit a question in writing: the county's form. Closes 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25.
Attend: Wednesday, Aug. 26, Public Meeting Room, 10001 Iron Bridge Road. The meeting convenes at 2 p.m.; the data center update is in the evening portion. Check the agenda for the order of business.
The rally: courtyard, 5:30 p.m., organized by the Data Center Defiance Coalition. Details on the Facebook event page.

Board meetings are live streamed and archived on the county's website for anyone who cannot attend in person.

Sources

#data centers #Board of Supervisors #Google#public meetings#Chesterfield County

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