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Title: Iowa County Rolls Out Extensive Zoning Rules For Data Centers

Link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/03/02/2210...

Linn County, Iowa has adopted what may be one of the nation's strictest local
zoning ordinances for data centers, requiring detailed water studies, formal
water-use agreements, 1,000-foot residential setbacks, noise and light
limits, and infrastructure compensation. "But seated beneath a van-sized
American flag hanging from the rafters of the drafty Palo Community Center
gymnasium, residents asked for even stronger protections," reports Inside
Climate News. "One by one, they approached the microphone at the front of the
gym to voice concerns about water use, electricity rates, light pollution,
the impacts of low-frequency noise on livestock, and the county's ability to
enforce the terms of the ordinance. Some, including Dorothy Landt of Palo,
called for a complete moratorium on new data center development." Landt
asked: "Why has Linn County, Iowa, become a dumping ground for soon-to-be
obsolete technology that spoils our landscape and robs us of our resources?
While I admire the efforts of the Board of Supervisors to propose a data
center ordinance, I would prefer to see all future data centers banned from
Linn County." From the report: The county is already home to two major data
center projects, operated by Google and QTS. Both are located in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa's second-largest city, and are therefore subject to its laws.
The new ordinance would apply only to unincorporated areas of the county,
which make up more than two-thirds of its geographic footprint. [...] In
drafting the ordinance, [Charlie Nichols, director of planning and
development for Linn County] and his staff drew on the experiences of
communities nationwide, meeting with local government officials in regions
that have seen massive booms in data center development, including several
counties in northern Virginia, the "data center capital of the world." As
data center development balloons, many communities that initially zoned the
operations as warehouses or standard commercial users are abandoning that
practice, Nichols noted. The extreme energy and water demands of data centers
simply cannot be accounted for by existing zoning frameworks, he said. "These
are generational uses with generational infrastructure impacts, and treating
them as a normal warehouse or normal commercial user is just not working."
[...] The Linn County, Iowa, ordinance goes one step further than tightening
existing zoning rules. Instead, it creates a new, exclusive-use zoning
district for data centers, granting county officials the power to set
specific application requirements and development standards for projects. No
other counties in the state have introduced similar zoning requirements, said
Nichols. In fact, few jurisdictions nationwide have. [...] From its first
reading to final adoption, the ordinance has expanded to include language
setting light pollution standards, requiring a waste management plan,
including the Iowa DNR in the water-use agreement to address potential well
interference issues and requiring an applicant-led public meeting before any
zoning commission meetings. "I am very confident that no ordinance for data
centers in Iowa is asking for more information or asking for more
requirements to be met than our ordinance right now," said Nichols at the
final reading. The Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance has said that it
strongly supports current and future data center development in the area. The
new ordinance is not an effective moratorium, Nichols said. He said he
"strongly believes" that a data center can be built within the adopted
framework.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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