Officials in Virginia's Fairfax County have passed regulations limiting where data centers can be built.

The regulations will require data centers to be at least 200 feet away from residential areas, a mile away from a Metro station, and proposals will have to conduct noise studies.

An additional 500-foot setback would apply to any equipment, including cooling equipment, generators, accessory substation, or other power equipment that is mounted on the ground

After a four-hour meeting, as reported by DC News Now, the regulations passed with an 8-2 vote, with chairman Jeff McKay saying of the decision: "We want to put in place protections for data centers in Fairfax County and not repeat the challenges that have been faced in neighboring Prince William and Loudoun counties."

The response from locals has been mixed, with some saying the restrictions do not go far enough, while others are concerned that it may make Fairfax County less appealing to data centers that can provide significant tax revenue to the county.

An agenda document shared alongside the meeting stated: "For all applications for rezonings and related development plans and special exceptions, site plans, and building permits approved before the effective date of this amendment, the applicant/owner may continue under their previous approval."

It continued: "Required subsequent plan and permit submissions may be accepted and new approvals may be granted, consistent with those prior approvals. Revisions to such prior approvals may be approved if they do not aggravate conflicts with this amendment."

Further restrictions on data centers include the requirement for screening of equipment such as air conditioning and generators, as well as size thresholds.

The decision on restrictions has been a long time coming. In July, following another marathon meeting at which 65 people voiced their opinions, a decision was made to postpone the vote till the end of the month. An error in publicizing the following meeting led to a second delay until September 10.

Thus far, Fairfax County has around three million sq ft (278,700 sqm) of data center space, less than 10 percent of that of Loudoun County. Data center companies with facilities under development or in operation in Fairfax include Penzance, AWS, CoreSite, and Edge Centres.