Gage County To Examine Zoning For Data Centers
By Gordon Hopkins
Gage County Supervisors have asked the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission to review regulations for industrial data centers.
Nebraska has become a key data center hub. Companies operating facilities in the state include Google, Meta and First National Technology Solutions. It is seen by some as a potential financial boon. However, data centers and AI also dramatically increase demand for power and water for cooling and some people worry about the drain on resources.
At a meeting on of the supervisors Wednesday, April 1, setting a moratorium on permits for construction of data centers in the county until zoning regulations had been reviewed was on the agenda. However, both supervisor Erich Tiemann and county attorney Amanda Fanning were of the opinion that could not legally be done without first holding a public hearing.
Fanning said, “It’s my understanding that the county has passed resolutions in the past that have allowed moratoriums, but I think when they did so, they didn’t follow statute. And our statutes require that for any change in regulations, be it a restriction or a pause or a moratorium, it requires public notice and public hearing.”
Tiemann said, “I would not be in favor of that anyway. I think that sends a very bad message to the outside that we would put moratorium on projects like this. We did it in the past. I don’t know if we did it legally or not, with the wind farms, the wind regulations, there was not a project at that time. There isn’t a project at this time, but there are a bunch of options purchased.”
Supervisor Emily Haxby told Tiemann, “When you talk about the message that you’re sending with a look in the image, just by having a moratorium. If you look definition or what the intent of a moratorium is, it’s only a pause. It is not a ‘we don’t want you here.’ So, when you talk about that, I want to get you a dictionary, because that’s not what that is.”
“We’ve successfully had a moratorium on solar, opened it back up, and then had a successful application already,” Haxby pointed out. “I very much disagree with that.”
Tiemann said, “I think putting moratoriums on different items sends a very bad message to the outside investor. We did it with wind and solar. We didn’t put a moratorium on many agricultural facilities. And I know you’ve probably heard from different producers, they’re not even going to mess with Gage County because it’s too much headache.”
Tiemann expressed concern that the county is losing investment opportunities.
“We have a producer that’s going to be investing in Gage County right now.” Tiemann said that producer is, “Considering going across the county line, because it’s less of a headache to invest over there than it is here. That doesn’t mean that we don’t put regulations on them, but we can still not make it impossible to do business here.”
Supervisors voted to have the Planning and Zoning Commission to review the zoning regulations and make recommendations for data centers. They did not vote for a moratorium.
