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Commission directs staff to draft data‑center regulations and consider moratorium after technical briefings
Summary
After detailed briefings on utility capacity and community concerns, the commission voted to direct staff to draft ordinance recommendations to regulate data centers and to consider whether a temporary moratorium is warranted while rules are developed.
The Coldwater Planning Commission voted to direct staff to prepare ordinance recommendations addressing data centers and related uses, including potential limits on scale, siting, noise and water use, and to advise whether a short moratorium is appropriate while the city drafts rules.
Staff said they have spent months reviewing other communities’ approaches and have a preliminary draft that would allow data centers within defined parameters rather than categorically excluding them. “We have been doing research. I have a draft ordinance,” the staff member said, noting the challenge of balancing state law that prohibits exclusionary zoning with local protections for residential areas and prime farmland.
Utility staff gave commissioners concrete local capacity figures. An agency official summarized transmission constraints and the city's likely capacity without upgrades: “Today, we could safely handle…30 megawatts,” the agency official said, and added that a 30‑megawatt customer could represent roughly $3,000,000 a month in utility sales and produce significant local revenue but would require contractual protections so other ratepayers do not shoulder risk.
Commissioners debated whether to impose a proactive moratorium while staff completes an ordinance or to move directly to drafting narrowly tailored limits (for example, caps expressed in megawatts, minimum setbacks from residences, and requirements for sound and wastewater controls). Several commissioners said a moratorium could be an effective tool to buy time to write rules; others worried about optics and legal exposure if a moratorium were enacted without a clear justification.
After discussion, the commission approved a motion directing staff to return with draft recommendations and to advise the commission and council on whether a moratorium is warranted.
Next steps: staff (in coordination with the city attorney and utilities) will prepare a draft ordinance and options for a moratorium; the commission expects a future work session or meeting where recommendations will be considered.
