Planning commission recommends zoning text amendments to treat battery storage and data centers as conditional uses after debate over moratorium

Planning staff asked the Shawnee County Planning Commission to recommend a text amendment to the county’s zoning regulations that would shift private and public utility structures in the light-industrial district, and explicitly add standalone energy storage systems and data centers in RA, RR, I-1 and I-2 zones as uses allowed only by conditional use permit.

Staff said the change is intended to preserve the county’s ability to set site-specific standards — setbacks, decommissioning, reclamation and bonding — rather than leave such facilities to a building-permit process that would prevent the commission from imposing conditions. The staff presentation noted a battery storage project in Tecumseh that has held community open houses and may apply this summer.

Commissioners pressed staff on resource and infrastructure concerns, including the amount of electricity and water data centers use, and asked whether the county should instead pursue a temporary moratorium while drafting regulations. Staff recommended moving forward with a conditional-use framework and developing detailed regulations in parallel, saying conditional-use review allows immediate, site-specific requirements and public hearings while regulations are drafted.

A commissioner moved to remove the data-center provision from the package and recommend a six-month moratorium on data centers to allow further study. That motion failed for lack of a second. The commission instead voted 6–1 to recommend the text amendments as presented; one commissioner opposed the recommendation and staff invited that commissioner to submit a short written statement for the record explaining the vote.

The commission’s recommendation will be forwarded to the Board of County Commissioners, which will hold final consideration at a future meeting.