Sparta Board of Aldermen approving a resolution to establish a 180-day moratorium on new data centers while the city reviews development standards.
City Administrator Tonya Tindall said the measure stems from concerns regarding the demands these facilities place on local resources. Tindall said the resolution serves as a formal statement that the board is looking into the issue to ensure future developments are restricted appropriately.
“Everything that’s on your cloud is in a data center and they, they take a lot of infrastructure and they take a lot of electricity and they take a lot of water,” Tindall said. “And they might have some biproducts for the environment.”
Tindall said Mayor Jerry Lowery and the city will look at zoning options for the potential future data centers to dictate where the centers could be placed. Similar developments in McMinnville prompted a local review.
Alderman Jim Floyd said he has already heard complaints from the neighboring community regarding the impact of such facilities on local infrastructure, sewer and water while providing little if any benefit.
Vice-Mayor Robert Officer said the lack of available land within the city limits might naturally discourage data center developers from choosing the area. Officer said it would be difficult for such projects to find a suitable location because they require a large amount of acreage.
“Well, hopefully with they may not find us an attractive place to go to,” Officer said. “Because it takes a lot of land, we don’t really have a whole lot of land in city limits anyway, so it’d be difficult for them to find some place to go.”
The moratorium on data centers will remain in place for six months while the Sparta Municipal Planning Commission reviews proposed zoning regulations.
