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Douglas County staff to draft BESS zoning rules after work session
Summary
At a May 6 work session, planning staff described battery energy storage systems (BESS), flagged fire‑safety, water and infrastructure concerns, and said a text amendment initiated in 2024 will guide new permitting. Commissioners directed staff to continue drafting BESS regulations and public review.
Douglas County commissioners on May 6 heard a staff briefing on battery energy storage systems and asked planning staff to draft zoning standards to guide future proposals, staff and commissioners said.
Carl, a county planning staffer, told the Board the county initiated a text amendment in July 2024 to address BESS, data centers and digital asset retrieval uses and that “no application has been received…no specific site is being considered, and I’m also not presenting any draft code language tonight.” He described BESS as ranging from small home backup systems to grid‑scale installations built from ventilated, shipping‑container‑like modules and said the primary zoning concern is combustibility risk and thermal runaway —…
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