Mercer County officials reject regulations to allow data centers next to coal-fired power plant

HARRODSBURG — The Mercer County Fiscal Court rejected zoning regulations on Monday that would have allowed the siting of large data centers on land adjacent to a Kentucky Utilities coal-fired power plant.

The unanimous vote by county elected officials during a special meeting is the latest development in the rural community following months of contentious debate over whether the community should allow hyperscale data centers, and if so, where such data centers should be sited.

Republican Mercer County Judge-Executive Sarah Steele told the more than 170 people sitting in chairs and bleachers that the proposed regulations did offer some protections: requiring a data center developer to enter into a community benefit agreement to ensure the developer pays for its own infrastructure and the requirement of environmental studies.

But the regulations needed more work, particularly to align them into the county’s comprehensive plan, or the long-term guide for land use and development.

“I am not completely anti-data center, but we have to get this right before we approve it,” Steele said.

The vote got a round of applause from the audience, many of them wearing blue shirts as a part of the community group We Are Mercer County that has voiced strong concerns over land use and environmental impacts from potential hyperscale data centers.

An even louder round of applause came when Republican Mercer County Magistrate Susan Barrington told the audience she was outright against the construction of any hyperscale data center because of impacts to agricultural land, nearby horse farms and residential neighborhoods.

“The construction of a monstrous hyperscale data center will cause a significant, highly disruptive, irreversible, and permanent damage to the footprint of District 4,” Barrington said, referring to her magisterial district that includes Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, a historic site preserving structures of the Kentucky Shakers religious community.

Back to planning and zoning

The vote will send the proposed data center regulations back to a planning and zoning commission — currently made up of members appointed by the county and the county seat of Harrodsburg — that has spent since April working on various drafts of ordinances to regulate the siting of impacts of large data centers.

The county had passed a one-year temporary ban, or moratorium, on data center construction in August that would have expired automatically if the fiscal court had adopted the regulations.

The regulations would have established an “industrial technology” district allowing the siting hyperscale data centers on land — including some farmland — adjacent to the coal-fired E.W. Brown Generating Station, operated by Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities along the Dix River.

While no specific data center proposal has emerged to be located adjacent to the coal-fired power plant, the Harrodsburg Herald reported in December 2025 the commission was hiring a consultant to deal with the possibility of a large-scale data center in the community. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported in February a land developer it was marketing a piece of undeveloped land next to the power plant.

The location of the new zoning for data centers alarmed the leadership of Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in particular, the edge of the zone being less than a mile away from the historic site. The nonprofit urged community members to tell the fiscal court to reject the regulations in the days leading up to the meeting.

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill CEO Billy Rankin told the Lantern the data center zone was an “arbitrary designation” of land next to the power plant.

“It would be disruptive in many ways, whether it’s the sound, the light, the construction process, all of the above,” Rankin said. “We care about Mercer County. We care about land conservation. We care about historic preservation. We care about our tourism in the county. We want to make sure that all of those factors are considered broadly as a county before a decision that’s so impactful would be made anyway.”

Rankin said he hopes for a “collaborative and well-rounded” comprehensive planning process by the commission.

‘Some questions and some unknowns’

But Steele, the judge-executive, also said during the meeting there are still “some questions and some unknowns” including what the small Mercer County city of Burgin will do.

The small city of about 1,000 people has grappled with a proposal to annex land north of the city — a different location compared to the land next to the power plant — for a hyperscale data center pitched by developer Panattoni Data Centers. A Burgin city council member walked out of a meeting earlier this month to prevent a vote to advance consideration of the potential annexation.

Any data center regulations passed by the county would not affect land within Burgin city limits because the city doesn’t have planning and zoning regulations. But the Burgin city council is meeting Tuesday to vote on potentially joining the county’s joint planning and zoning commission and potentially create its own regulations.

Laura Duhamel, 67, one of the attendees wearing a blue We Are Mercer County shirt, told the Lantern she had strong concerns about data center construction because she wanted to preserve farmland.

“We’re not out of it yet,” Duhamel said. “I think a lot’s going to depend on what happens in Burgin” with upcoming local elections.