Murray’s Planning Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to recommend a proposed ordinance adding new zoning regulations for future data centers. The ordinance will now go to the city council for approval.
That move came after a public hearing last week where more than 20 community members gave feedback on what they think Murray should incorporate into potential rules data center projects would have to follow to build one of the facilities in the Calloway County city. Several comments from that meeting were taken into consideration in the new version of the ordinance discussed at Tuesday’s meeting. Primary among those was to modify language in the new draft to read that Murray’s intention is to regulate data centers – not facilitate them.
Other changes that Director of Planning Carol Downey talked with the commission about include increasing setbacks from wetland boundaries from 50 feet to 300 feet; requiring data center companies to renew their conditional use permits annually; and making sure those facilities provide up-to-date information – like updated decommissioning costs and power usage rates – during that yearly permit renewal process.
Following the June 9 public comments, the planning commission initially wanted more time to review suggested changes to the proposed ordinance. However, Murray Mayor Bob Rogers last week requested the planning commission to vote on the data center zoning rules at its Tuesday meeting.
In a letter from Rogers read aloud at Tuesday’s commission meeting, the mayor said the city does not believe a data center is “in the best interest of Murray.”
Murray’s City Council passed a one-week moratorium last week to allow the planning commission time to sign off on the proposed ordinance. The elected body will have a special meeting Thursday at 6 p.m. to hold a first reading of the proposed ordinance.
While the planning commission has signed off on some suggested changes to the original draft, the proposed zoning regulations can still be amended by the city council before the group formally adopts the ordinance.
Public interest in the City of Murray’s journey to establish new data center zoning rules prompted the Calloway County Administration/Ordinance Committee on Monday to discuss how the county wants to approach any new facilities that may eye the area in the future. Calloway County Attorney Bryan Ernstberger said a ban on the facilities likely would not be upheld in court. A county moratorium on the projects could potentially be legal – but Ernstberger cautioned it would have to be drafted carefully.
Overall, county officials felt they needed to do more research and hear from experts on topics like health impacts from data centers and the facilities’ power usage habits before they could proceed with drafting any statute regulating the projects.
While there are no data center projects in Murray’s city limits, Calloway County is home to one – Soluna’s 25-megawatt Project Sophie, which went online in 2021.
