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County planning staff to draft moratorium on data centers while standards developed
Summary
Commissioners authorized planning staff March 4 to bring back a resolution imposing a temporary moratorium on data center development while staff researches requirements and drafts an ordinance; staff proposed returning a draft moratorium at the next meeting.
Pennington County commissioners on March 4 authorized planning staff to draft a resolution imposing a time-limited moratorium on data-center permits while the department researches technical standards and prepares ordinance language.
Planning director Brittany Molitor told the board that data centers—large facilities that house servers and require significant power and cooling—are becoming more common in colder states and that the county has no existing local standards. She said Grant County is currently the only South Dakota county that has a dedicated data-center ordinance.
Why it matters: data centers can require substantial electric power and water and may trigger questions about siting, decommissioning, tax treatment and infrastructure impact. Planning staff said a moratorium would buy time for drafting ordinance language focused on local impacts and standards.
Board action and next steps: commissioners authorized staff and the State's Attorney's Office to draft a moratorium resolution to return at the next board meeting. Staff proposed a six-to-12-month window for research and ordinance-drafting, but the board did not set a precise duration at the March 4 meeting.
