Amazon Warrenton data center, Warrenton, Virginia

Amazon's planned data center on Blackwell Road in Warrenton, Fauquier County, Virginia, is still waiting on a judge, more than three years after residents sued to overturn the Town Council's approval. Judge Stephen Sincavage heard final oral arguments on June 15, 2026 in the suit brought by Citizens for Fauquier County and 10 residents against Amazon Data Services' special use permit, and had not ruled as of August 3.

The Warrenton Town Council voted 4-3 in February 2023 to grant Amazon Data Services a special use permit for a 220,000-square-foot data center at Blackwell Road and Lee Highway, at the town's eastern gateway. Hundreds of residents turned out to oppose it. "I think it's important that we listen to our citizens. Otherwise we become an oppressive government," Council Member David McGuire said before voting no. The town's former manager, Brandie Schaeffer, had exchanged 3,142 emails with Amazon representatives before leaving to work for Amazon, and the town fought Citizens for Fauquier County in court over releasing them.

The plaintiffs argue that the April 2021 zoning amendment that allowed data centers in Warrenton was void from the start because the town did not state its purpose, so the permit built on it should fall too. "Reliance on a void act is reliance on nothing," their attorney, Dale Mullen, told the court. Amazon's attorney, Matt Westover, argued the amendment was valid and that challenges had to be brought within 30 days, warning that open-ended challenges would create "chaotic conditions beyond all comprehension." The town itself has changed sides: its attorney, Philip Carter Strother, backed many of the plaintiffs' arguments and said Warrenton no longer shares Amazon's "litigation alignment."

In July 2025 the Town Council removed data centers as a permitted use in its industrial districts, which did not undo Amazon's permit but makes future approvals harder. In 2025 the town also found that Amazon does not have vested rights to build on the 42-acre site; Amazon has appealed that finding in court, and on July 30, 2026 Judge James Plowman turned down Citizens for Fauquier County's request to join that case. "As I understand… the [special use permit case] is the primary suit, which would essentially nullify and would basically render unnecessary the other two," said Ali Zarabi, the group's president.

The county around Warrenton is tightening too. On September 17, 2026 the Fauquier County Planning Commission unanimously recommended limiting new data centers to land zoned planned commercial industrial, now only the Vint Hill area, and requiring a special exception from the Board of Supervisors for each one. Two data center applications near Remington were pulled before that meeting.

The data center's fate now rests with the Fauquier County Circuit Court: Judge Sincavage's ruling on the permit, and the separate case over Amazon's vested rights. The judge gave no date for his decision.