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If the 2010s zoning fights were about apartments, the 2020s fights are increasingly about infrastructure disguised as real estate. Data centers—driven by cloud computing and the AI boom—are land-intensive, power-hungry, and politically explosive when they land near neighborhoods. Zoning is now the front line. Northern Virginia is the case study because it’s one of the world’s most concentrated data center regions. As expansion accelerated, the conflict shifted from abstract

Developers obsess over rates, rents, and construction costs. But in 2026, one variable increasingly separates winners from losers : time. Permit time. Review time. Re-submittal time. Hearing time. Because time is carrying cost—and carrying cost is margin. That’s why a quiet shift matters: cities are piloting AI-assisted permitting and plan review to reduce backlogs and accelerate housing delivery. What AI can actually do ( and what it can’t ) AI is not a magic stamp that app