Hamblen County adopts request for one-year moratorium on high-intensity electrical-load facilities

The Public Services Committee voted to request an interim one-year moratorium on high-intensity electrical-load facilities — the ordinance language cited data centers as an example — while county staff and the planning commission draft permanent zoning regulations.

"We're asking for a year," Tom McKinney, the county’s planning and zoning manager, said in opening the item, explaining that the moratorium would preserve the status quo while staff studies land-use, utility and public-safety implications. McKinney and planning commission members told commissioners that data centers can create substantial electrical and water demand, noise and emergency-response challenges and that nearby jurisdictions had been surprised by rapid, unregulated development.

Committee members discussed tax revenues from existing facilities and the trade-offs of permitting the use; one commissioner cited about $27,000 in tax receipts from a local high-intensity computing facility but noted such facilities employ only a handful of on-site workers. Committee members and staff emphasized that the moratorium only buys time to create appropriate zoning and that a public hearing process is required before an ordinance is enacted.

The committee moved the moratorium request forward to a public hearing; the motion carried. Staff said the moratorium would be limited geographically to the first civil district industrial park noted in the draft and that any permanent regulations would address setbacks, noise mitigation, water and fire-safety standards.

What’s next: county staff will schedule the required public hearing(s) and proceed with drafting zoning language and utility/response considerations to present to the planning commission and commission for adoption.