Commission declares moratorium on data centers, battery storage operations
- Roger Sims, Journal Staff
- 15 hours ago
- 3 min read
By Roger Sims, Journal staff
MOUND CITY – The Linn County Commission has issued a temporary 12-month moratorium on filing any applications or issuing any permits for data processing centers, battery energy storage, and bitcoin or cryptocurrency mining facilities at its meeting on May 11. The moratorium only applies to unincorporated areas in the county.
That decision came a few days after the La Cygne City Council meeting where Osawatomie area resident Ian Day appeared before that council to warn them that construction and operation of a proposed data center at Osawatomie would send contaminates down the Marais des Cygnes River to La Cygne as well as cut into the city’s water supply.
The action by the commission and the public comment at the council meeting were unrelated, but it demonstrated the prevalence of concern by officials about operations that use substantial amounts of water for cooling as well as electricity.
The unanimous vote on Monday, May 11, to ban such projects comes after the Linn County Planning and Zoning Commission spent two workshop sessions earlier this spring hammering out language on zoning regulations that would govern the requirements for those types of installations.
The county commission’s vote came following a closed-door session with County Counselor Jacklyn Paletta for attorney-client consultation.
The reason for the motion and the temporary ban was not discussed in open session, however, the county has been approached about building a battery storage unit adjacent to the La Cygne Generating Station.
The planning commission was two meetings into preparing regulations for data centers and battery storage units that planning commission chair David Fisher said would likely require several revisions.
Several area communities have raised red flags about data centers, with opponents citing issues with a voracious appetite for electricity to run the computers and water to keep those computers cool.
Commission Chair Alison Hamilton acknowledged that the planning commission had been working on developing regulations for data centers and battery storage facilities, but she also said she wasn’t comfortable with the permitted uses on land with Industrial, both light and heavy, zoning.
She said she believes that in a broader interpretation of the the current zoning regulations, those uses would be permitted with or without a conditional use permit. That includes light manufacturing or processing. To be sure that data centers and other uses wouldn’t fall under that category, she felt the best way to give the county more time to research the option was to place a moratorium specifically on those uses.
Hamilton cast one of two “no” votes to stop the granting of Heavy Industrial zoning for the Youthfront property just east of U.S. Highway 69 on 2400 Road in April. She said that one reason was because she felt like Youthfront representatives were not being up front with designs for the 258-acre tract.
“I felt like there was more to that,” Hamilton said. “I think they had a plan and they were going to do something behind our backs.”
The rezoning requested by Youthfront received a recommendation from the county planning commission, but failed 2-to-1 in the commission vote. Hamilton and Jim Johnson voted against the rezoning, Jason Hightower voted for it.
Youthfront is being represented by an attorney in the case, and there is speculation that the commission’s decision could spark litigation.
Hamilton also noted that a recent application for an easement indicated that transmission lines were being planned from solar energy fields to a substation at the La Cygne Generating Station.
She said she knew those lines couldn’t be stopped but she wanted to be sure that the county received the revenue due from their installation.
However, County Appraiser LIsa Kellstadt said on Thursday that the state determines the value of all utilities, and that valuation is spread across the state. She did say, however, that the county could expect at least some revenue from the power plant’s recent upgrades.