• New Castle County approved data center rules that will not apply to Project Washington.
• It came after hours of public comment and council compromise.
• The ordinance restricts water usage and creates buffers between data centers and residential areas.

New Castle County Council approved regulations on the development of data centers Tuesday night.

They won’t apply to the massive proposed data center complex of Project Washington, which continues to fight through state-level objections.

The County Council meeting was standing room only. The crowd of both construction workers supporting the legislation and community members opposing it spread into the lobby of the Louis Redding City/County Building.

The ordinance requires data centers to have a closed-loop water cooling system to limit its water use and creates a 1,000-foot buffer between data centers and residential areas, with an exception for 500-foot buffers if a development can follow noise regulations. It also defaults to existing county limits on noise and lighting levels.

A unanimously approved amendment from Pike Creek representative Timothy Sheldon clarified that these new regulations count for applications submitted after this gets adopted and approved by County Executive Marcus Henry, unless an existing applicant requests to follow these new regulations.

It passed with 12 ‘yes’ votes, with Councilmember Jea P. Street absent from the vote itself.

This was the only amendment left standing. An amendment from Janet Kilpatrick, representing Hockessin, would have grandfathered existing data centers from the ordinance, clarifying that any pending proposal in the county wouldn’t be affected. Another amendment, from Claymont representative John Cartier, would’ve made the ordinance retroactive to count for Project Washington and others. Both were withdrawn at the meeting in a council compromise.

Project Washington’s plans north of Delaware City kicked local data center dialogue into high gear in 2025. The data center project would include 11 two-story data center buildings surrounded by electrical fields on two large land parcels accessible by Hamburg Road, Governor Lea Road and River Road.

It would be 6 million square feet of data center running 24 hours a day, seven days week.

The project’s developer, Starwood Digital Ventures, pledges job creation and and a colossal injection of tax revenue into the coffers of the county and Colonial School District. They said this will bring about 3,500 construction jobs and retain 700 permanent jobs to keep the facility up and running.

County Council member Dave Carter has spent months drafting the regulations that were voted on during this meeting. This is substitute number three on the original bill from August 2025, including compromises on noise and lighting restrictions. Carter wants sensible data center regulation in the county, and he told Delaware Online/The News Journal in March he thinks Project Washington is a “bad deal” for the state.

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He thinks the potential demand on the state’s already strained electrical bid will hurt residents’ bills. He also disputes the developers’ promises on permanent jobs and tax revenue.

“We just have to really be cognizant and thoughtful and make sure that we are ensuring that we protect our communities, and that we manage these things well if they are coming,” Carter said at the meeting.

It hasn’t been an easy sell to the rest of County Council. Council member Janet Kilpatrick, who represents Hockessin, wanted consistent regulations on lighting and noise levels to avoid scaring off potential business. Data centers have sprung up across the country as the highly demanding AI industry exploded in popularity.

“If we don’t have some stability, these people are not going to be able to go through a lender to get money, and so that means that they leave, and I’m sure that there’s a group of people in this room that would love to see them leave, but that’s not how we build economic development,” she said at the meeting. “Part of what we need, in my mind, in economic development is that we have a stable land use code.”

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Although this doesn’t apply to the controversial Project Washington, County Council will still have a say on the re-zoning of half of the project’s land. The County Board of Adjustment will also have to approve its electrical switch station, Culver said.

At the meeting, residents showed up with mainly negative comments for Project Washington. But, members of trade unions showed up in support of the project’s potential to create construction jobs.

Starwood Digital Ventures will continue to move through the approval process with no changes to Project Washington, according to Jim Lamb, who is handling media for the project.

“We’re really happy there’s a consensus within the council and it’s a really great opportunity for the residents of New Castle County,” Lamb said Tuesday night.

Now this goes to County Executive Marcus Henry’s office, who can sign or veto these regulations.

Half of Project Washington’s proposed land still needs a re-zone, which requires council approval. The project was stifled by DNREC, who ruled the proposal’s size, use and backup diesel generators violate the decades-old Coastal Zone Act.