On Oct. 7, the Loudoun Times-Mirror reported that Zoning Administrator Teresa Miller told the Board of Supervisors on Oct. 6 that Amazon cannot build data centers as a principal use on the former George Washington University campus in Ashburn without board approval. Amazon bought the campus for $427 million in February. Miller pointed to her July 30, 2026, advisory opinion: under the 1972 zoning ordinance that still governs the site, a data center is not a permitted principal use.
What happened
The Virginia Science and Technology Campus, north of Ashburn, is not under the current zoning ordinance. That is why neighbors have spent months asking whether Amazon could treat data centers as an older by-right office use. Miller’s answer at the Oct. 6 meeting was no. She told the board, as quoted by the Times-Mirror: “Regarding the use of the property as a data center, pursuant to a July 30th, 2026, zoning administrator advisory opinion, data center is not a permitted principal use within the 1972 zoning ordinance, and therefore not a permitted use of the property.”
Vice Chair Mike Turner (Ashburn) said, “Any way you look at it, Amazon’s going to have to come to us for permission to build a data center on that site.” Miller confirmed that reading of the advisory opinion.
Two other constraints are still in play. The Route 28 Tax District is set to expire in the coming months, which would pull properties onto the current ordinance. Covenants on three of the campus’s 10 parcels limit those pieces to higher-education use.
This is a land-use ruling, not a denial of a building. Amazon has not received a special exception, and the Times-Mirror did not report a hearing date.
Why a buyer or seller cares
The campus sits in the Ashburn and University Center market, where buyers already price noise, power lines, and what gets built on the next parcel. A by-right data center path and a special-exception path are different timelines and different chances for a neighborhood to be heard. Sellers near the campus should not assume the February purchase equals an approved campus. Buyers under contract nearby should ask what is entitled, not what was announced.
The same Oct. 6 meeting left 15 other grandfathered data center applications, totaling 10.5 million square feet, on the older rules. Those files are a separate track from the GWU parcels.
What is still open
Whether Amazon files a special exception, and when. What happens to the site when the Route 28 Tax District expires. How the higher-education covenants on three of the 10 parcels are applied. The Times-Mirror account does not say Amazon has withdrawn its plans.
Sources
- Rachel McCrea, “Amazon can’t build data centers on GWU campus without board approval, zoning administrator says,” Loudoun Times-Mirror, Oct. 7, 2026.
- Teresa Miller, remarks to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Oct. 6, 2026, as quoted by the Loudoun Times-Mirror, citing the July 30, 2026, zoning administrator advisory opinion.
If you are buying or selling near the old GWU campus, send the address and we will walk the public zoning notes with you.
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