Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell signed an executive order allowing Metro departments to review the impact of large-scale data centers on the city.
“We don’t want the potential negative impacts of large-scale data centers in our neighborhoods, so in partnership with the Metro Council, we’re taking action to ensure we put proper regulations in place before any more of these things are proposed,” said O’Connell on Monday.
“With this Executive Order, we’ll work with Metro departments and the Metro Council to ensure Nashville remains a place where our residents’ health and safety always come first,” the mayor said.
The executive order says “rapid growth of large-scale data centers…has generated increasing concerns nationwide regarding impacts on infrastructure, the environment, nearby communities, and local economies.”
“It is necessary for Metro to identify lawful and effective tools available to address potential adverse impacts of large-scale data centers and opportunities to thoughtfully protect interests within Nashville and Davidson County,” it adds.
According to the executive order, a large-scale data center is at least 20,000 square feet and expects to use over 5 megawatts of power.
The executive order will support legislation to implement a temporary ban on large-scale data centers while the Metropolitan government works on zoning regulations for them.
It also asks Metro departments, including the Metro Planning Department, the Metro Planning Commission, and the Metro Council, to continue assessing the potential impacts of large-scale data centers and to provide policy recommendations to mitigate those impacts.
Metro departments will need to prepare impact reports to examine the potential impacts of large-scale data centers in Davidson County, the executive order says.
The departments will need to submit these reports by August 15th.
Next week, the Metropolitan Planning Commission will discuss possible zoning regulations for data centers in Davidson County.
Furthermore, the Nashville Metro Council approved a resolution on first reading last week that would temporarily ban data center development while the county works on zoning regulations for data centers.
Numerous parts of Tennessee are also taking steps to implement zoning regulations for data centers.
Coffee County Commission passed a resolution last week implementing a one-year moratorium on data centers. The ban will allow the county to propose regulations for data centers.
McMinville, a town of around 15,000 people in Middle Tennessee, imposed an 18-month ban on new data center construction.
Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon said she will introduce an ordinance asking for a one-year ban on large data centers in the city. On top of this, the Knox County Commission is considering a ban on data center construction in the county until June 30th, 2027.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
