Union County reads proposed ordinance to tightly regulate "digital infrastructure hubs"

The Union County Commission opened a public hearing and County Attorney William Mercer read a proposed ordinance intended to regulate "digital infrastructure hubs," a draft the county describes as an update to a 2022 rule. Mercer said the ordinance's stated purpose is "to establish regulation relating to digital infrastructure hubs and related systems and to establish standards to protect the public health, safety, welfare" while avoiding conflicts with state and federal law.

The draft defines terms (including "artificial intelligence data center," "digital infrastructure hub" or "DHI," and "commercial cryptocurrency mining"), and sets permitting prerequisites: multiple applications under common ownership must be aggregated as a single project; a public hearing is required prior to issuance; owners of every property that touches a proposed site must agree in writing; and residents within a three‑mile radius must be notified at least 14 days before the hearing. Mercer read technical standards that would apply to permitted sites, including a minimum contiguous site size of 500 acres, a required 0.5‑mile distance from the nearest residential property line, maximum structure heights of 30 feet, and an impervious coverage cap of 20%.

The ordinance text imposes operational and measurement standards. Noise limits were read as a daytime continuous level no higher than 50 dBK and a nighttime continuous level no higher than 45 dB, with annual certified testing protocols. Power disclosures would require applicants to provide a written maximum daily requested power, an estimated connected load in megawatts, routing plans (overhead/underground), and any required substation upgrades and cost allocations. On energy storage the draft requires long‑duration storage with a 10‑hour minimum and expressly disallows lithium‑ion batteries for storage. The draft also requires SOC 2 security/auditing certification for commercial DHIs, with validation provided to the county within 13 months of operation and annually thereafter.

The draft contains construction, traffic, and financial protections: a construction traffic management plan, haul‑route identification, a road‑impact assessment, bonds to remediate road damage, and a required decommissioning/remediation bond to cover hazardous material removal and site cleanup in the event of abandonment, bankruptcy, or sale. Mercer read enforcement language explaining that each day a violation continues would be a separate violation and that the county's maximum fine and jail term are constrained by state law.

Mercer cautioned the public the county cannot regulate certain utility activities because the state regulates utilities where the county does not own them, and said the county had tried to craft the draft to be as robust as legally permissible. "If we say no and get sued by a big corporation... and we lose, then everyone that buys land that wants to put a data center in Union County can do so without a single bit of regulation," Mercer said during the reading. He also said the ordinance "shall become effective immediately upon its adoption" in the draft as presented.

The proposal drew detailed public comment at the hearing, and county staff said the ordinance will be revised after the public input and a second reading is scheduled.