A joint Warrenton Board of Aldermen and Planning and Zoning Commission meeting Oct. 30 started as a discussion on a proposed heavy industry ordinance, but morphed into a proposal to place a definition of data centers into the appendix of the city’s already existing zoning code and requiring a conditional use permit.
The meeting began with a discussion of an ordinance drafted by Alderman Christine Wait. Wait said she felt the city needed a new ordinance better suited for heavy industry projects to get ahead of any proposal for a possible data center.
Currently, a data center company is considering a property north of the Warrenton West interchange. No specific details have been made public as no formal plans had been submitted as of last week’s meeting.
One of the first challenges to Wait’s proposed ordinance came from Planning and Zoning Commission member John Cornell who asked whether the city could regulate a company’s electricity and water usage if the city isn’t providing those utilities. He also questioned where Wait got the proposed benchmarks in her proposed ordinance from, specifically the 100 megawatts of electricity and the 30,000 gallons per day for water.
Wait said her figures were pulled from other municipalities, specifically ones in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina that were concerned about the usage of water and electricity.
Commission member Stephanie Tibbetts asked whether these benchmarks were a delineation of what would go into a heavy industrial category and asked whether a hospital would fit under the definition.
There was also a brief discussion on who would provide the sewer services to a proposed data center and City Administrator Brandie Walters said Warrenton would be supplying sewer service.
As discussion continued on the issues of electricity, water and sewer usage, Mayor Eric Schleuter interjected that any new heavy industry zoning category would need to encompass more than a data center. He said he felt any proposed ordinance needed to be more generalized and would need to include several other types of businesses.
Alderman Larry Corder said he felt like the proposed ordinance was trying to cover something they have no idea about. He suggested it might be more advantageous to leave the city’s current codes as is and wait for a proposal to make any determinations about how to handle it.
As the discussion continued, City Attorney Bradley Pryor attempted to explain to the members of the two boards the distinction between permitted and conditional uses. Noting that under the current zoning code businesses that meet the requirements of a specific zoning code as written would be permitted uses, while conditional uses would be those that allow for a more discretionary review by planning and zoning and the board of aldermen. Currently any proposed data center would fall under either M-1 or M-2 zoning and would possibly be a permitted use.
Based upon Pryor’s description, Wait noted that this would be the reason to establish guidelines under the zoning code to cover data centers and other types of businesses.
Planing and zoning commission member Damion Frederick suggested perhaps making data centers a conditional use category. This would allow city officials more flexibility in setting guidelines to approve projects.
Pryor said that the city could update the appendix in the zoning code to specifically define what a data center is and then make such projects conditional use projects under the zoning code.
Frederick said he felt that making data centers conditional use would be, “the most reasonable way to address the issues but be flexible.”
Frederick said he felt the solution would be better than restricting officials with a proposed ordinance such as the one proposed by Wait
Pryor again suggested the city could draft an ordinance that added a definition of data centers to the already existing zoning code appendix.
As the conversation shifted from Wait’s proposed ordinance to creating a definition of data centers for the appendix, more members of both boards seemed to approve of the suggestion.
For those still on the fence, Frederick explained that a lot of requirements are already covered in the guidelines for conditional use permits. He said all of the concerns that city officials currently have can be resolved through the conditional use permit process with the exception of energy and water usage, which he said he didn’t feel they could regulate anyway.
Ultimately Pryor was instructed to create definitions for the appendix for a data center and a cryptocurrency mining operation and define both as conditional use. There was also some discussion of amending the setback requirements under M-1 and M-2 to allow for larger setbacks to alleviate the concerns of residents who live near the property. No specific setback definition was set, but Pryor was asked to investigate other communities to ascertain possible setback requirements.
