Montgomery Board of Commissioners Move Forward with Land Use Ordinance Readings

The Montgomery County Board of Commissioners voted to move forward with the readings of a land use ordinance on data centers during their regular meeting on Aug. 10 in Mount Vernon.

“This is not an invitation to data centers,” said Commissioner Amie Vassey. “There is currently no alert system of any kind. If someone wanted to come and build a data center, we wouldn’t know about it, and there’d be nothing we could do about it. So, the goal of this ordinance is to regulate that process so that there is a notification piece.”

Vassey offered the motion to begin the reading, which passed unanimously.

All nine pages of the ordinance were read aloud by County Attorney Ron Daniels during the meeting. The ordinance requires two readings on separate meetings before it can be passed into law.

The ordinance lists definitions of the terms “data center” and “data center campus,” and requires companies looking to build a data center to purchase a business license, pay an application fee of $10,000 for each data center, apply for a special use permit, host community information meetings for county residents, comply with buffer requirements for the construction, building fencing, regulate noise levels, provide the county with an environmental impact analysis, swear under oath to not seek tax abatements and remain subject to a five-person review board comprised of residents, among other requirements.

The ordinance has been in the works since May, when the issue of data centers was first brought up by Commissioner Vassey. According to Vassey, the local tax assessor had been approached in January regarding a parcel which could be used to build a data center.

While no data center has begun construction, the board began workshopping the ordinance as a potential “alert system” in the event a company wished to build a data center in the county.

“Currently, we have nothing at all to protect us, and we’re very vulnerable,” said Vassey during the board’s work session. “These companies know that. They could come in right now and do anything they want. This ordinance creates an alert system.”

Commissioner Leland Adams proposed a zoning board as an alternative to the ordinance, claiming the ordinance would only provide “hurdles” for companies to overcome rather than stopping data centers outright. 

“Commissioner Adams is 1,000 percent correct,” said Daniels. “This will not stop a data center. The only way to do that would be to enact zoning.”

While Commissioner Vassey was not opposed to zoning, she maintained it would be unpopular with residents compared to a land use ordinance.

The board will have a second reading during their next regular meeting on Sept. 14. Chair Ginger Morris also requested printed copies of the ordinance be made available during the meeting for residents to review.