I hadn't heard of Loudoun County before. I also did read the article and here's a sentence from it.
> But while most locals the BBC spoke to opposed the data centres, the industry has many powerful proponents, including US President Donald Trump.
Also moving isn't something to take lightly.
> "I never thought that a data centre would be built across the street from my house," she said. "I would not have bought this house if I had known what was going in across the street."
> "I never thought that a data centre would be built across the street from my house," she said. "I would not have bought this house if I had known what was going in across the street."
and let this be a lesson to anyone looking to buy with vacant land within whatever radius you want to apply. if you think you might be upset by something that could be developed in the future, you can do some basic research on what zoning the lot(s) have, if they are owned by someone/thing that is discernible and not a shell company (if it is a shell company that's probably an indication you won't like what's coming), etc. sure, the ultimate developer of the think you won't like might only purchase the lot just before they are ready to build (specifically to avoid this), ultimately they will have to file for plans. it's possible those plans have already been filed, but if you don't look into it, it's really on you since you have the problem with it.
If I'm correct that the data center shown is on Belfort and Glenn Dr, then you don't even have to "research" zoning, just look across the street.
In 2021/2022 before it was built:
* Here is what that lot looked like [1]. To assume something wouldn't be built there is optimistic at best. (And there was precedent for data centers at the time - there was already a data center less than half mile away on Vantage Data Plz across the street from Tart Lumber.)
* If you look across the street, ie if the video would have panned to the left, you would have seen the "US Customs and Border Patrol" building - not winning any architectural design awards [2].
For someone who bought their house decades ago, then yes - the area has transformed drastically. But grouping someone who purchased recently with someone who purchased decades ago is a bit muddled.
[1]: https://www.google.com/maps/@38.9991758,-77.4300191,3a,75y,1...
[2]: https://www.google.com/maps/place/IAD146/@38.9981504,-77.428...
The best research one can do is only going to be so useful. Zoning laws might stop an average person or corporation from building something undesirable, but entities with enough wealth and connections can get those changed. Lately the conventional wisdom seems to be that NIMBYs have too much power, but in all of the cases I'm personally familiar with a single wealthy person or corporation was able to re-zone property however they wanted over the overwhelming objections of the longtime residents nearby.
Just because you bought the place doesn't mean everything is finished. If you want to be a NIMBY, then you have to keep up with what's going on around you. If someone wants to rezone a plot, there's normally some sort of cursory public notice about it giving a small window to voice concerns. take advantage of them or not, but if you want to keep the status quo, you have to fight for it. the world is constantly changing