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Resident urges tougher limits on data centers as commission reworks land-use ordinance
Summary
During citizens' time a resident urged the planning commission to remove data centers from commercial zoning and to treat them differently in industrial zones to avoid creating precedents; commissioners debated permissive versus prohibitive zoning approaches and scheduled further work with the Board of Supervisors.
A resident speaker at the July 6 Wythe County Planning Commission meeting urged commissioners to tighten the draft land-use ordinance's treatment of data centers and to avoid zoning precedents that could lead to future unwelcome developments in visible commercial areas.
"I was asking this to be taken out of commercial," the resident (Mr. Kegley) said, arguing that placing data centers in commercial zones increases public exposure and potential opposition. He said he preferred treating data centers as a special-use type in industrial zones or restricting them entirely in commercial districts to add an extra step of public review and to reduce the risk that a future board would cite an existing data center as precedent.
Commissioners and staff discussed whether to adopt a more permissive (what is allowed) approach or a prohibitive (what is banned) framework. Deputy county administrator Hankins (staff) said the commission could choose either track but cautioned that moving to a prohibitive model would effectively restart much of the drafting work and require substantial rewrites. "If the planning commissioners tell me that's the tack you want to take, I can tell the board of supervisors that's the direction you want to go and that we're going to look at new language," Hankins said.
The resident also raised water-use concerns for proposed data centers in the eastern county, asking whether facilities would drill wells or tap public water. Hankins replied that the county is not far enough along in approvals to be certain but that public water for fire protection is likely to be required and that some data-center designs use closed-loop cooling systems rather than large consumptive water draws.
Commissioners asked for models and additional sessions to identify what the commission would want to prohibit or restrict. Several commissioners expressed interest in a joint work session with the Board of Supervisors so supervisors could see the planning commission's direction before a final vote.
The commission agreed to circulate potential dates and to schedule a joint work session in July if feasible; staff suggested the week of July 20 (preferred July 27) as possible dates.
