Warrick Commissioners Vote Monday on Data Centers

Warrick County Commissioners are scheduled to vote at 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9, on an ordinance that would set zoning rules for data centers. The meeting will be held at the Friedman Park Event Center.

The Warrick County Area Plan Commission voted Monday, Nov. 2, to send the ordinance to the commissioners with a recommendation against approval, the Courier & Press and the Princeton Daily Clarion's Warrick News reported. The APC moved that meeting from the courthouse to Friedman Park to make room for the public.

The ordinance would create a Data Center Overlay District, called DC-O. The overlay is not drawn on the county map ahead of time. A data center could be built only on land zoned M-2, for heavy industry, that also receives DC-O zoning through a site-specific rezoning by the commissioners. Landowners without M-2 zoning could seek both at once.

The draft bars data centers from going through the Board of Zoning Appeals for special exceptions or conditional uses. It also says meeting the minimum standards "does not create a right to DC-O zoning."

The standards include:

• Operational noise of no more than 55 dBA or 65 dBC at a home, school, park, church or other sensitive site, or at a residential zoning boundary
• Buildings set back at least 300 feet from homes or residential zoning, and generators, transformers and battery storage at least 500 feet
• A landscaped buffer of at least 100 feet near residential property
• Fully shielded exterior lighting no warmer than 3,000 Kelvin
• Water-efficient cooling, with once-through cooling banned
• An annual compliance report and a plan for decommissioning and removal

Applicants would also have to submit fire and emergency medical information, including training needs and added staffing demands.

Cliff Whitehead, attorney for the commissioners, said the ordinance does not approve a data center or a location and does not guarantee a data center will ever come to Warrick County, the Warrick News reported. County officials have said the rules are not written around any single project, 14 News reported.

Public attention on the ordinance rose after the announcement of Project Alloy, a proposed data center on roughly 700 acres of Alcoa-owned land near the company's riverside complex. The draft before the commissioners would not approve that project or any other.

Speakers at the Nov. 2 meeting asked for more detail. Christopher Stephens of the Boonville Fire Department, the first speaker, said fire chiefs across the county had asked to be involved and had not been heard, 14 News reported. County Councilman Brad Overton said he wanted the ordinance to include specific limits on power and water use.

Other residents said the draft needed more specifics to protect people living nearby. They raised fire and emergency procedures, utility costs, stormwater and water use, public health and the environment. Some said the county should learn more before passing any ordinance.

The full ordinance is posted at warrickcounty.gov/area-plan.