Data Center Neighbors Want Rules, Not Bans, Survey Finds

Developers withdrew plans for a 2,100-acre campus holding as many as 37 data centers in Prince William County, Virginia, in early July 2026 after public protest and legal action killed the project. A week later, county officials rejected a separate proposal to rezone another 2,000 acres for data centers, citing that same opposition.

The twin defeats landed at the epicenter of the industry. Northern Virginia hosts the world's largest concentration of data centers, and residents there have lived alongside them for years. Now a new survey quantifies what those neighbors actually want from regulators — and the answer is not a shutdown.

Fengxiu Zhang, associate professor of policy and government at George Mason University, and Saba Siddiki, professor of citizenship and democracy at Syracuse University, surveyed 1,004 residents of northern Virginia and the Richmond metropolitan area in fall 2025. Those two regions contain Virginia's largest data center clusters. The study is published in Social Science Quarterly.

Rather than ask respondents to support or oppose individual policies, the researchers presented each person with five pairs of policy packages. Each package combined measures on data center siting, power line placement, electricity rates, environmental effects, energy and water reporting, and requirements for public review before approval. One pairing, for example, offered underground power lines and data centers near homes but no environmental impact assessment, against above-ground lines, siting restrictions near homes and parks, and a mandatory assessment. The design let the researchers isolate the independent pull of each measure.

The results show residents weight visible, immediate impacts most heavily. The strongest support went to requiring new transmission lines underground, restricting data centers near homes, schools and parks, and mandating regular reporting of energy and water use. Public participation before approval ranked second among the six provisions tested.

That last finding carries practical weight. Many Virginia jurisdictions have long allowed data centers to proceed without public review so long as buildings met existing zoning rules. In July 2024, residents of Fairfax County's Bren Mar neighborhood raised concerns about a proposed 466,000-square-foot data center — roughly the size of three Walmart Supercenters — only to learn local zoning allowed the developer to build it with no public hearing. In early 2025, Loudoun County, known as "Data Center Alley," ended automatic zoning approval and required public hearings before officials decide on proposals.

The counterpressure comes from Washington. The EPA under the Trump administration has moved to reduce requirements for public hearings on air-pollution permits for data center projects.

Support softens on more complex questions. Respondents were ambivalent about whether data centers should pay higher electricity rates than other customers, even as infrastructure costs flow downstream. A Bloomberg analysis found wholesale electricity prices near data centers more than tripled between 2020 and 2025. In August 2026, Reuters reported that rapid data center growth forced Dominion Energy to rely more on costly wholesale power, contributing to a proposed rate hike that could raise a typical residential bill by about $20 per month. The authors argue residents can reach informed decisions on such trade-offs, but only if technical experts in local and state government explain them clearly.

The sharpest finding concerns the overall balance of opinion. About 47% of respondents support data center development in their area, 25% are neutral and 27% oppose it. Support for regulation, the authors conclude, does not equal hostility to the industry. "Their views indicate that supporting data center growth and strengthening oversight are not competing goals," they write. For county officials and developers negotiating the next Prince William-scale project, the lesson is that the decisive question is no longer whether to allow data centers, but how to govern them.