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New commissioner urges UDO review to address data centers and countywide planning
Summary
Commissioner Mike, a new plan commission member, urged the commission to start a study this summer to update the Unified Development Ordinance with stricter rules for data centers and to convene a countywide plan commission study group to coordinate growth along corridors over the next 10–20 years.
Commissioner Mike asked the Morgan County Plan Commission to begin work in August or September on two planning priorities: first, to consider updating the county’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) to add clearer, and where appropriate stricter, standards for data centers; and second, to form a study group of county and municipal plan commissions to coordinate long-term corridor and area planning.
"I would like to start... looking at updating our UDO to have an ordinance that deals directly with data centers to where we could possibly be putting in a little bit more strict enforcements and restrictions on them," Mike said, describing a desire to study how other counties and jurisdictions regulate data centers and to adopt local approaches that work for Morgan County.
Mike also proposed bringing representatives from county and municipal plan commissions (Martinsville, Moorsville, Monrovia, Morgantown and the county) together with volunteers to consider whether the county should move from advisory planning to area planning and how to coordinate growth in corridors near municipal boundaries. He said the effort would aim to produce guidance for growth over the next 10 to 20 years, and that timing would depend on agenda availability and staff work to assemble background information.
Commissioners agreed to consider the proposal and to place the topic on a future agenda when time allows. No formal vote or ordinance change was taken at the meeting.
