The order does not, itself, stop data centers in the county.
Image Credit: Freddie O’Connell / Facebook
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by Sarah Grace Taylor [The Nashville Banner, Creative Commons] –
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell signed an executive order on Monday voicing his support for a temporary moratorium on large data centers as the city weighs multiple proposed pieces of legislation to address the growing — and hotly contested — industry.
O’Connell’s order comes after weeks of discord around the growth of data centers in the city, namely targeting a proposed development on the campus of Fisk University and one planned immediately next to the Nashville Zoo.
In his order, the mayor expresses support for “expedited consideration of legislation instituting a temporary moratorium on new large-scale data center development within Nashville and Davidson County while a regulatory framework, including the review and permitting process, is developed and implemented.”
“We’re not going to allow large-scale data centers that harm our neighborhoods, our environment or our neighbors,” O’Connell said in a social media video released with the order, which does not, itself, institute any moratorium.
In the video, O’Connell says he wants to lend the “full weight” of the Metro government to help with the ongoing effort to pass a temporary moratorium on the centers, while using city departments to do further research on a long term policy.
A pair of Metro Council members have introduced recent bills to address data centers in the last month, including a moratorium proposed by Council member Courtney Johnston and a permanent zoning policy from Council member Rollin Horton that would create a classification for and regulation of data centers, both of which have passed initial council votes but still need to clear the Metro Planning Commission and final council votes.
O’Connell’s statement seems to align with Johnston’s proposal and comes after he submitted a statement to the Planning Commission on Thursday, signifying he supports some zoning change but is not committed to the current proposed version, which will be altered by Planning Commission staff before both bills are heard on June 25. Whether Horton’s bill is tweaked or substantially overhauled remains to be seen.
Those with trepidation about Horton’s bill argued that the policy needs further study to ensure it is not vulnerable to state preemption, while those opposed to a moratorium said all-out bans can be more easily overturned in court.
Activists opposing the developments, who have come out en masse with scores of public commenters and over 425,000 petition signatures since the zoo project became public knowledge, were critical of O’Connell on Monday, arguing that his order doesn’t do enough.
Drew Small, a South Nashville father who created the group No New Data Centers Nashville, said the mayor’s plan and statement on Thursday sound like efforts to stall Horton’s zoning bill.
“It basically just carries as much weight as a fart in a windstorm,” Small told the Banner.
Notably, the mayor’s executive order is in one way more restrictive than the proposed zoning bill, defining “large” data centers as any above 20,000 square-feet or with more than 5 megawatts of electrical demand.
A likely altered version of Horton’s zoning bill is set to be heard at the June 25 planning commission meeting.
2 Responses
Thanx. The cons of data centers far outweigh the pros.
When I heard Freddie talk about the moratorium I just laughed. He hasn’t been in enough meetings to know how the kick-backs work in this area.
I’m sure he will be as fair with this as he was in all of the property tax increases.
Elections have consequences.