A data center ban or data center regulations? Catch up on Kentucky data center news.

Republican Louisville Metro Council member Anthony Piagentini interrupted a committee meeting last week because he wanted someone to stop the blaring noise he heard from the gallery. 

That blaring noise was the recorded sound of a data center coming from the phone from a member of the group No Data Center 502, according to group organizer Danielle Ray. The group has confronted city leaders at public events and meetings, including Mayor Craig Greenberg, in an effort to try to stop a planned hyperscale data center in West Louisville. 

“A lot of the changes for the better and the improvements for people’s lives were achieved through direct action and protest and making officials uncomfortable,” Ray told the Kentucky Lantern in describing the group’s approach to advocacy. 

That 1.6 million-square-foot data center, being built by developers Poe Companies and PowerHouse Data Centers, received local government approval to move forward earlier this year before the city passed a moratorium, or a temporary ban, on data center construction. 

With that temporary ban in place, the council for Kentucky’s largest city is now grappling with how to craft planning and zoning regulations for data centers — particularly hyperscale data centers that can have a massive power demand to support online operations including artificial intelligence. 

It’s one of a number of Kentucky communities that are wrestling with how to regulate proposed data center projects. 

Evolving data center limits in Louisville

Louisville Public Media reported earlier this month that the city’s planning and zoning commission moved forward with stricter data center regulations, including a requirement that almost all data center proposals be rezoned and therefore have an opportunity for the public to weigh in. 

But one local group thinks the city needs a new approach, concerned that the regulations may not hold up in court. The current approach regulates data centers differently depending on their size, banning any data center larger than 500,000 square feet.

Sarah Lynn Cunningham, the executive director of the Louisville Climate Action Network, said that could be challenged in court.

“If it’s arbitrary, it can get thrown out. And it would really frustrate me if we are all working this hard and the community has invested unprecedented input into the government’s rulemaking processes, only to have it thrown out,” Cunningham said.

Instead, she is encouraging the council to rework the framework to regulate data centers based on their impact, such as having pollution limits, pointing to a template data center regulation ordinance created by an environmental legal group as a model.

Democratic Louisville Metro Council member Tammy Hawkins questioned why the city couldn’t ban data centers outright as a solution. 

Andrew Owen, the Democratic chair of the Planning and Zoning Committee, which is considering the regulations before they move to the full city council, told the Lantern he still favors regulation over prohibition. Scott Reed, the Republican co-chair of that committee, told the Lantern over the phone that he agreed. 

“My feeling is that most people that live in Jefferson County are okay with data centers with very, very thoughtful regulations in place,” Owen said in a Sept. 17 phone interview. “I think it is a very loud minority that says, ‘Don’t ever build one of these things ever.’” 

A county data center ban and a city council walkout

Woodford County just passed an outright ban on data centers. The county’s top elected official telling the Lantern a years-long desire to preserve farmland and strong data center opposition from constituents led to the strict move. 

Democratic Woodford County Judge-Executive Kay told the Lantern he wanted to avoid “divisive” debate over a potential data center proposal like what’s happening in Mercer County. 

The Lantern reported earlier this month a city council member for the small Mercer County city of Burgin walked out of a meeting to stop a vote on a proposed data center. The Mercer County Fiscal Court is holding a special meeting on Sept. 28 to discuss its own potential data center regulations, which currently wouldn’t include the city of Burgin. 

Lexington is also holding a special meeting on Oct. 6 to discuss potential data center regulations.

Legal loopholes?

Meanwhile, the GOP-controlled state legislature and Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear are also trying to tackle data center regulation, though some who watch state policymakers have pointed to potential loopholes and pitfalls. 

Beshear has stood firmly behind an executive order he issued seeking to control the impacts of large data centers, despite some questioning his ability to do so. 

A progressive think tank has also pointed to what it sees as loopholes in state law that could allow data center developers to skirt around paying local taxes, one of the key arguments data center proponents make for the projects. 

One data center developer is also using a state law meant to increase the supply of housing to try to dismiss a Simpson County lawsuit brought by a group representing concerned citizens.

In Congress on Thursday, a Democratic U.S. Senator stopped an effort to fast track the passage of a bill introduced by Republican Kentucky U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie that would encourage state utility regulators to consider rules that would have data centers cover their electricity and infrastructure costs.