LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — New Albany is pressing pause on data center development as the plan commission and city council reconsider the city’s land-use rules for emerging technology, such as data centers.
At a special meeting Tuesday, the New Albany Plan Commission recommended that city council move forward with the one-year moratorium on new data center construction, arguing the city's zoning rules weren't written with the rapidly growing industry in mind.
"We just want to make sure that the community safe, and everyone safe is all I'm asking," said Holly Merriweather of Floyds Knobs.
The proposal, which Mayor Jeff Gahan announced June 9, would pause all new data center development in the city for a full year while officials study how large-scale facilities could affect the city.
The temporary pause would give the New Albany City Council and the city’s planning and zoning department time to review whether current zoning regulations adequately address future data center proposals.
While city leaders said only one developer has expressed interest in developing a data center in the area so far, the proposed location immediately sparked concerns because it sits in a floodplain.
"And obviously, these machines are highly susceptible to flooding," said Scott Wood, New Albany's Director of Planning and Zoning. "So, I don't think we will be likely to see that land use, along the Ohio River."
Beyond flood concerns, Wood said the city lacks clear rules on where data centers should be built and how they should operate.
"Our zoning ordinance doesn't presently provide good guidance on these types of land uses," Wood said. "Such as where they should or shouldn't go and what development standards they should be held to."
While some people associate data centers with mega-projects like the Meta facility in Jeffersonville, city leaders said New Albany isn’t looking at anything that scale. Instead, the city council is focused on the possibility of smaller facilities, and what residents would get in return.
"Some things we might also consider would be a public benefit agreement," Wood said. "Some of these can actually provide low cost or free Wi-Fi to a large area of a community."
David McOwen spent nearly two decades working in data centers and says he's not opposed to the industry, as long as taxpayers aren't left footing the bill.
"Only if us, the citizens, didn't have to bear the costs of power," McOwen said. "If it's done right, the corporations data centers bear the cost, not the citizens."
McOwen said many of the complaints people associate with data centers aren't coming from the servers themselves.
"The servers are inside the building," McOwen said. "Outside is your cooling system, your backup generators."
As for worries about heat, McOwen said a large facility can add to the "heat island" effect but argued that’s true of most major buildings.
The proposal now heads to the New Albany City Council, which is expected to decide in July whether to put data center development on hold for the next year.
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