The White County Commission rejected a proposal to establish a commercial building codes department Monday night, citing the change in county leadership as a reason to wait.
Currently, the county only regulates residential structures. Chairman Derrick Hutchings said the proposal could provide the county with more oversight regarding the development of high-density data centers and cryptocurrency mines. The proposal would have started the process of designing a commercial code.
“The AI data centers we know are a very hot topic right now,” Hutchings said. “The property is potentially over five acres or is over five acres so there’s no planning commission that has to go in front of. And we don’t have any commercial building codes, so the county knew nothing of it of it.”
Commissioner Robert McCormick said the timing of the resolution was problematic because nine of the 14 commissioners are leaving office. McCormick said the board should wait 60 days to allow the incoming commission to handle the true process rather than passing a resolution of intent that might not be fulfilled.
The measure failed to pass after receiving only five “yes” votes, falling short of the seven required for approval.
Commissioner TK Austin said the county is currently losing significant revenue by failing to collect permit fees from industrial and commercial projects. Austin said many large-scale factories actually prefer having official inspections to mitigate their own future liability.
“These factories they want the inspections,” Austin said. “They want I mean they’re looking at it from a liability standpoint, they don’t care to pay you know $10,000 for a permit, they’re they’re looking for the liability really.”
County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said the resolution was designed to declare the county’s intent to pursue construction standards without immediately adopting specific codes. Robinson said this approach would shift the legal burden onto developers, who would have to challenge the county for a permit rather than the county suing to stop a project.
“Right now if we try to fight this we’ve got to put up a bond for any losses they might have or legal fees,” Robinson said. “It’s it’s all upon us to act. If you have commercial building codes and do not issue them a building permit then the burden is on them then to go through that process.”
During the public comment period, resident Beth Rizan said she had submitted a list of proposed ordinances to discourage data centers by requiring $35 million bonds and strict noise limits. Rizan said the goal was to make White County undesirable for such facilities without requiring the implementation of county-wide zoning.
“The ordinances were created specifically to uh make it very undesirable to want to come to White County,” Rizan said. “And we worked on ordinances that we felt did not require zoning to pass.”
Resident Craig Dial said his home is located only 1,600 feet from a proposed data center and expressed fear that the noise would destroy his quality of life. Dial said the sound from similar facilities is comparable to a power tool being held next to a person’s ear.
“It sounds like a Black & Decker drill right beside your ear,” Dial said. “And uh but these are forever homes over here behind us, a lot of people retired live there the rest of their life. They can’t afford to move, they can’t afford to sell your property and get out of here, and we’re depending on y’all to help us.”
The chairman said the issue of data center regulations and commercial codes will be placed on the agenda for the committee meetings in October to be addressed by the newly elected commission.
