Goochland County posts Tuckahoe Technology Park data center permit page

Goochland County has posted a new webpage for the Tuckahoe Technology Park pre-application process, putting the county’s first major test of its new technology rules directly in front of residents. The page says Goochland has received a pre-application for a Conditional Use Permit from VALCO Goochland, LLC, known as Tract, for a data center campus in the Technology Overlay District, in an area the county calls TOD West.

The county says the campus-style project would include seven development areas on 871 acres and must comply with the Technology Overlay District adopted Nov. 6, 2025. The webpage directs residents to the county’s online permit system, where the project narrative, technology overlay checklist, concept plan, noise study, view analysis, traffic impact analysis and boundary exhibit are available for review.

That matters because the overlay was written to shape where and how technology development can occur in Goochland’s eastern designated growth area. County records show the ordinance followed six months of community engagement, community meetings and public hearings, and it amended both the comprehensive plan and zoning code. The changes lowered parking standards for data centers and added definitions for small modular nuclear reactor facilities, natural gas peaking plants and utility generating stations.

The county has said the district is intended to diversify the tax base and help support public services without raising tax rates. At the same time, the first proposal under the new rules arrives amid sharp public scrutiny. Four county residents filed suit in December 2025 challenging the Technology Overlay District, and one plaintiff said in April that she feared a data center could rise near her home and argued the setback and noise rules were not strong enough.

The legal dispute is still moving through Goochland County Circuit Court. After a May 26 hearing, the court gave the county until the end of June to submit a modified legislative record, following the county’s filing of an 8,500-page record in February. The next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 20.

A June 5 acoustical assessment prepared by Ramboll Americas Engineering Solutions described the Tuckahoe Tech Park site as about 874 acres at Route 288 and Patterson Avenue, also known as Route 6. Local reports say Tract submitted an initial conditional-use permit application on June 11. The county’s new webpage now gives residents a single place to track what is proposed, what studies have been filed and where the next decisions will be made before the project hardens into a final plan.