Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff McKay told regional leaders Wednesday, Aug. 26, that the county created three times as many jobs as homes over the past decade, a gap he said threatens to push workers out of the community they grew up in.

McKay staked out positions on data centers, Metro funding and affordable housing at the 11th Annual Northern Virginia Regional Elected Leaders Summit at George Mason University's Fuse at Mason Square in Arlington. He appeared alongside Arlington County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti, Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall and Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins. NBC4 Northern Virginia reporter Drew Wilder moderated the panel, reported by Patch.

All three issues land squarely in Reston, where Silver Line Metro stations anchor mixed-use development and the Dulles Toll Road corridor continues to attract tech and data-center investment.

Data centers: local rules, no blanket bans

McKay said Fairfax County has between 3 million and 4 million square feet of data center space, a small portion of its commercial market. The county strengthened its zoning rules for data centers in 2024 and added new regulations for electric substations in 2025, according to FFXnow, after watching the industry's rapid growth in neighboring Loudoun County.

Virginia should set minimum environmental protections statewide while letting localities impose stronger rules, McKay said. He opposed blanket bans, saying data centers are necessary but must be sited carefully.

Randall said Loudoun's early experience should serve as a warning. "If we could rewind the clock, we would do a lot of things differently," she said. Data centers were originally permitted by right anywhere an office could be built there; the county has since required special exceptions. Still, Randall said Loudoun receives $26 in revenue for every $1 it spends on data center infrastructure.

The debate comes as several state lawmakers have called for a statewide moratorium on new data centers. Gov. Abigail Spanberger's office has projected $600 million in new state revenue from an energy consumption tax on the facilities. A proposed Plaza 500 data center on Edsall Road in Lincolnia, within 1,000 feet of more than 2,000 Alexandria homes, faces a Fairfax County Planning Commission public hearing on Thursday, Sept. 24.

Metro funding: keep it separate from schools

McKay criticized a Virginia proposal that would let Northern Virginia localities use revenue from a 1-cent sales tax for either school construction or Metro, saying the structure forces two essential needs to compete.

"We need a sustainable, proper answer for Metro divorced from the 1-cent sales tax that's meant to go toward education capital in Virginia," McKay said.

All four leaders agreed the region needs a dedicated, long-term Metro funding source rather than repeated short-term fixes. De Ferranti said Northern Virginia jurisdictions must act collectively so no locality commits funding without knowing its partners will do the same. Randall cautioned that many communities in the region will never have Metrorail service, making continued investment in roads and buses essential alongside any Metro fix.

The Virginia General Assembly in 2026 granted localities the power to impose a 1% sales tax for school construction, according to Axios. Richmond and Chesterfield are among localities asking voters to approve the measure in November.

Housing: state incentives over mandates

McKay said the jobs-housing imbalance makes it increasingly difficult for workers, including young adults raised in Fairfax County, to stay. Without enough housing, those jobs will eventually go somewhere else, he warned.

He called on the state to provide financial incentives for communities already producing affordable housing rather than imposing statewide zoning mandates. Fairfax has worked to distribute affordable units throughout the county rather than concentrating them in selected areas, McKay said.

Northern Virginia's median home sale price hit $750,000 in July 2026, down 1.3% from a year earlier, according to the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors. The region's 2.13 months of supply remains far tighter than the national 4.6 months.

The Fairfax County Planning Commission's next public hearing on the Plaza 500 data center proposal is Thursday, Sept. 24. No vote dates have been announced on Metro funding legislation or housing incentive proposals.