Hearing, vote set on data center rules
Potential zoning changes that could allow data centers to locate in designated unincorporated areas of Anderson County will be discussed during a public hearing by the County Commission at 6 p.m. Monday, June 15.
The commission will then consider passing three amendments to the zoning regulations during the regular meeting immediately following the hearing, Mayor Terry Frank said.
According to a published notice, the commission will hold the public hearing in Room 312 of the Anderson County Courthouse, 100 N. Main St., Clinton, “to consider amendments to the ‘Anderson County Zoning Resolution’ [to] include provisions for Battery Energy Storage Systems, Cryptocurrency Mining Facilities and Data Processing Centers.”
A copy of the proposed amendments is available at the Office of Planning and Development, Room 127 at the courthouse, the notice also stated.
But the proposed zoning changes are not in response to anyone planning to build a data center in Anderson County, Frank said Tuesday.
“These amendments do not mean any of these specific industries are locating here, and currently there are no applicants or planned projects,” she said.
“But without the amendments, Anderson County is extremely limited on what we can do to ensure the community is safeguarded should one of these industries seek to build in the unincorporated area of Anderson County.
“In addition, several jurisdictions have moved towards a moratorium on data centers to allow more time for studying community safeguards,” Frank said.
“I have requested a legal opinion from the [county] law director regarding the moratorium process in Anderson County in case [the] County Commission chooses to request additional time to study the issue.”
Social media posts are popping up urging citizens to attend the public hearing, ostensibly to oppose the zoning changes.
Lindsay Smith made this post on Monday in the Facebook group “The Well-Informed Citizens of Anderson County”:
“Anderson County Commission is having a public hearing for amendments to our Zoning Resolution for Data Centers and other things like it!
“You need to make plans to be there and have your voice heard and your stance understood!
“If you do not understand what type of hazard these can cause, go look up how well the citizens of Jellico, and anyone on the same power grid is doing with one.
“Go even further than that! Look up how ALL citizens around these centers, all over the United States, are doing!
“This situation has even gained the attention and battle cry from Erin Brockovich. This is not a time to be complacent or turn a blind eye!” she wrote.
Under current state law, counties and municipalities cannot outright ban data centers, but they can control them, using zoning ordinances, according to planning professionals in Anderson County.
Rocky Top recently took similar action because its zoning regulations did not mention data centers.
With the recent ordinance changes, such centers are now allowed in Rocky Top only under a special exception in M-1 industrial zones. The City Council passed an amendment to the zoning ordinance on second and final reading in April.
The vote came during the regular council meeting, following a public hearing a half-hour before the meeting, during which several people in attendance expressed concerns about allowing the centers in the city.
But Mayor Kerry Templin told them that by law, the city can’t ban data centers – although it can regulate them.
And even though he said no one had yet approached the city about bringing one to Rocky Top, he said the ordinance is necessary because without it, a data center could be built “anywhere in town.”
“I don’t know that anyone would ever want to,” Templin said during the hearing.
