A Middle Tennessee city is considering implementing a temporary moratorium on new data center development.
On Monday, the Gallatin Municipal Planning Commission recommended the city council implement a 12-month moratorium on new data centers.
The recommendation comes after the planning commission unanimously approved a resolution in July instructing it to examine the effects of a temporary ban on data centers in the city of nearly 55,000 people.
According to a planning department staff report, reasons a moratorium could help Gallatin include the city’s few regulations on data centers, as well as making sure that as new data centers come online, the city has regulations in place to make sure they “won’t be a detriment to the health, safety and welfare” of its citizens.
“Enacting a moratorium on new data center development would allow the City to have more time to evaluate the impacts that data centers can have and develop a set of regulations that will best serve the City,” the report said.
Regarding the effects on the economy, the report said data centers consume “valuable land and precious utilities” while generating few jobs or sales tax revenue.
“Creating a set of regulations that properly designate where they can go and what types of impacts to utilities they can generate is thinking proactively about the City’s economic prosperity,” the report said.
The moratorium would not apply to data center developers who have already been approved by the city, or to developers making amendments to their approvals, as long as they are not requesting additional space, the report noted.
According to the report, for the moratorium to be legally defensible, the Gallatin City Attorney’s Office said it needs to be “reasonable in scope and duration,” “serve a legitimate government interest,” and have facts showing a pause in construction is connected with a plan or infrastructure goal.
Besides Gallatin, Memphis is also considering implementing a 12-month pause on data center development. The city passed an ordinance on first reading last week that would impose a temporary moratorium.
If these two local governments do pass temporary bans on data centers, they will join Davidson County, Coffee County, Knox County, Hamilton County, Wilson County, and the City of Knoxville.
The City of St. Joseph and Hawkins County have banned data centers.
At the state level, State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) is working on legislation that would allow local governments to authorize or deny new data centers within their jurisdictions.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected].
Photo “Data Center” by Tony Webster. CC BY 2.0.
Gallatin will put a moratorium on data center construction BUT continues to approve massive amounts of housing developments including huge apartment complexes that put an unbelievable strain on infrastructure including water, sewer, streets and schools. I guess those folks are more interested in becoming like Nashville than adding a business.