The Planning and Zoning Commission held a meeting Thursday to discuss data center rules and regulations.
In April, the Columbia City Council defined data centers as: “A building, facility, or premise used for the storage, management, processing and/or transmission of digital data that typically contains computers, network equipment, systems, servers, appliances, and other accessory components necessary for digital data operations.”
In May, they placed a moratorium, which prevents new data centers from being built, until May 2027.
These changes come amid major citizen concerns about data centers and their water and electricity use, noise, light pollution and visual appeal.
Two data centers are being built in Montgomery County despite intense public scrutiny. Together, the data centers will span 1,900 acres.
David Kunz, a city planner, gave a presentation on energy usage in Columbia, including the top energy users and projected energy usage from data centers.
The top five energy users in Columbia currently use a combined 391.8 megawatt-hours a day. A midsized data center, which Kunz said is most likely for the city, would use upwards of 480 megawatt-hour a day.
“(A data center) would be likely to be the largest utility or electric utility in the city unless it’s a really small enterprise data center,” Kunz said.
Kunz also provided some recommendations on what the commission should do from information based on research about data center locations across the country.
Data centers could be as close as 300 feet away from residential property lines as long as there is no light or noise pollution.
Currently, all industrial buildings have to be 25 feet from residential property lines.
Data centers would have to provide potential employment numbers to the city to determine the number of parking spots allowed. The city wants to prevent having unnecessary parking lot space.
Another parking option would be to not have a parking lot at all, but there were concerns about street parking and future buildings in these locations.
There could also be required screening for all rooftop equipment in order to limit noise and visual pollution.
Additionally, Kunz suggested that data centers be no more than 1,000 feet long where they face public roads. The public-facing facades would also be required to match aesthetically.
Commission member Sharon Geuea Jones proposed putting a cap on the size of data centers. Kunz and commission member Cody Darr fought against this proposal.
“I think a cap’s kind of arbitrary. I like the concrete and the property line thing,” Darr said. “You know, stuff that’s more scientific.”
The city is scheduled to hold hearings about data centers leading up to the final Dec. 12 hearing before the council votes on Jan. 19, at the earliest. The next scheduled Planning and Zoning Commission hearing on data centers will be on June 11.
