The rule McKay’s Board wrote: In September 2024, the Democrat-majority Fairfax County Board of Supervisors passed a zoning ordinance that limits new data centers to 80,000 square feet in many industrial districts and requires them to sit at least 200 feet from any residential property. Chairman Jeff McKay (D-At-Large) sold it to the public as a tough new guardrail to protect neighborhoods. Commercial Observer

The project that just landed on his desk: A California operator called Serverfarm has applied to build two data center buildings totaling roughly 316,228 square feet at 7990 and 7980 Quantum Drive in Tysons — about four times the size limit — sited just 107 to 131 feet from the Reserve at Tysons Corner apartments and Heritage Point Townhouses. That is roughly half the buffer the Democrat Board promised residents. FFXnow

The escape hatch they wrote in for themselves: The 2024 ordinance was never an actual cap. Lesser distances and larger buildings can be permitted with Special Exception approval — meaning the same Board that passed the rule decides, project by project, whether to enforce it. That is not protection. That is permission to play favorites. Holland & Knight

The “bespoke” sales pitch: Serverfarm’s land-use attorney is calling the project “low-impact, sustainable and elegant” — marketing words designed to give Democrat supervisors political cover to wave it through. A 316,228-square-foot industrial building 107 feet from a child’s bedroom is not “elegant.” It is an industrial facility next to a family’s living room window. FFXnow

Who decides — and who is accountable: Chairman Jeff McKay (D-At-Large) holds the gavel. Supervisor Dalia Palchik (D-Providence) represents the Tysons-area district where this is happening. Supervisor Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill) holds the neighboring district. They sit alongside seven more Democrats and one Republican — Pat Herrity (R-Springfield), the lone conservative voice on a 9-1 Democrat Board. Every one of those ten seats is on the ballot in November 2027.

This is what Democrat one-party rule looks like in Fairfax County: rules written for headlines, waivers handed out behind closed doors, and homeowners left to absorb the consequences. Common-sense Virginians deserve a Board that means what it writes — not a Board that writes a cap so it can break it. Tell your neighbors. Show up at the public hearing. And in November 2027, vote like your home value depends on it. Because it does.