Planning commissioners on Monday approved an additional hurdle to prevent hyper-scale data centers from being built within Lawrence city limits.
The item on the agenda was a text amendment that will alter the city’s land development code. The code currently states that data centers are allowed by right in certain zoning areas, meaning they would not have to face any public process before they could be constructed.
In response to rising public concerns about the possibility of a data center coming to town, Lawrence city commissioners in July approved a two-year moratorium. They also initiated the text amendment as a longer-term safeguard against data centers.
With the amendment to city code, any proposed data center would have to seek a special use permit. The permits would require public hearings with the planning commission and Lawrence City Commission, giving community members a chance to voice their objections.
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The text amendment will remain in place after the moratorium expires.
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The issue has drawn significant public comment each time it has come up at local government meetings, with nearly all speakers voicing opposition to any data centers. Planning commissioners on Monday, too, heard from numerous members of the public, many of whom cited concerns about the environment. Some said the moratorium and text amendment did not go far enough.
Planning Commissioner Gary Rexroad, the lone vote opposing Monday’s measure, said he thought the city must differentiate between types of data centers before passing the text amendment. He said he was concerned the commission would be introducing a barrier to businesses that are not data centers but may have server rooms on-site.
“The concerns are not about the 99.9% of the instances of small, air-cooled, low-wattage-consuming — they’re part of our everyday,” he said. “They’re quiet neighbors all around us, every day. Because that’s not what we’re talking about, we should clearly say that.”
Jeff Crick said server rooms within businesses — such as servers for sending email or storing records — are typically considered ancillary uses, as opposed to data centers that would be the principal use of a site.
Deputy City Attorney Randy Larkin said the intent of the permits would not be to go after those small ancillary uses. He also said the text amendment is another protection, not a loophole.
“These are for situations where, for example, if the city commission were to … lift the moratorium, then one of these hyper data centers would then have the right, as a matter of right, to do this,” Larkin said. “So this is an extra protection, and that was the purpose of the city commission creating this, was to create a safety net behind the moratorium.”
City planner Drew Bealby said staff members are in the process of researching data centers to return with recommendations during the duration of the moratorium.
Planning Commissioner Jane Eldredge said she has been very aware of how fast technology moves, and “what we think might be the answer tonight may not be the answer in 12 months or 24 months.”
“But I think we need to give the staff the opportunity to work through that, and meanwhile, give the city the opportunity to look at a new venture coming to town,” Eldredge said. “They can go to the city commission, and the first question is, do we lift the moratorium? That’s properly a city commission decision — not our decision.”
Eldredge also asked that the planning commission look at revising future meeting schedules to allow members more time to review written public comments ahead of meetings.
The planning commission voted 6-1 in favor of the text amendment.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at [email protected]. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
