The Project Washington data center project in Delaware City has been denied, at least for now.
Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has ruled that the proposed Project Washington data center campus is prohibited under the state’s Coastal Zone Act. The decision that halts the project at this stage unless the developer successfully appeals.
State Sen. Stephanie Hansen praised the agency’s ruling, and urged the state to use the moment to clarify how it will handle future proposals.
“Ultimately, this decision from DNREC buys us time to get this right,” Hansen said in a statement. “Given the growing emphasis on technology and artificial intelligence, it’s clear that data centers are here to stay — and it’s up to us to implement meaningful regulations that balance economic opportunity with energy affordability and reliability.”
Issued by DNREC Secretary Greg Patterson, the Coastal Zone Act status decision concludes that key components of the proposal fall into activities the law does not allow in the coastal zone.
The developer, Starwood Digital Ventures, has 14 days to appeal the determination.
While the full decision lays out DNREC’s legal and technical rationale, the ruling lands after months of heightened public scrutiny over the project’s scale and potential impacts, including concerns about how a mega-campus would be powered and what it could mean for pollution and electric rates. Delaware Public Media’s coverage described the proposal as including extensive diesel generator capacity and related fuel storage, which were factors central to DNREC’s Coastal Zone Act analysis.
Project Washington has been one of Delaware’s most closely watched data center proposals. As we previously reported, Starwood’s plan centers on a roughly 6.1 million-sq.-ft. development across two sites near New Castle and Delaware City, envisioning multiple data center buildings on undeveloped parcels near existing industrial infrastructure.
