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Logan County Board
Zoning Committee Reviews Data Center Ordinance Recommendations
[October 07, 2026]
The Zoning and Economic
Development Committee of the larger Logan County Board met for their
monthly meeting on Monday, October 5th. This meeting was held in the
first floor courtroom of the Logan County Courthouse immediately
following the Transportation Committee meeting. Four of the six
committee members were present, including Chairman Gil Turner, Vice
Chairman Kathy Schmidt, Hannah Fitzpatrick, and Joseph Kuhlman. Bob
Sanders and Keenan Leesman were not present.
The agenda for this meeting only had one item on it, that being a
review and discussion of the draft data center ordinance. Turner led
the committee through a discussion on each part, with Zoning Officer
Al Green providing many clarifications and overviews when needed.
Springfield law firm Brown, Hay, & Stephens provided the
recommendations that the committee discussed.
The first issue discussed was the setback, or how far a data center
would have to be located from the nearest property. Leesman had a
written recommendation of 500 feet, with room to be farther on a per
case basis during the application and planning stages. BH&S
recommended setting the minimum at 750 feet, which is what the
committee went with.
The Emergency Management Plan was next. Green explained the argument
here was that since data centers do not change “significantly” over
time, rather than submitting a new plan each year, the data center
would only have to submit a new one when changes are made. He argued
this would make record keeping easier on the county side, and the
committee agreed.
The next few were short
discussions. The committee agreed that the data center should not be
able to sell power they generate on their property if they have
on-site generation. They determined that any data center would be
required to have a closed loop cooling system to cut down on water
consumption. They also added language about the data center having
to follow state and federal guidelines on reporting.
Next, the committee discussed and agreed to some limits on the data
center’s building permit. Any data center would not be allowed to
get a separate building permit and build onto their existing
structure as a way to bypass regulations on the original structure.
A decommissioning plan was briefly discussed. It was determined that
this part would be worked on later. The committee also agreed to a
clause that no public official would be allowed to enter into a
non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with any data center company building
in the county.
Chemical discharges and noise were next. The committee agreed that,
in addition to reporting chemical discharges at the federal and
state level, data centers would be responsible for reporting them to
the county as well. With noise, the committee had to set it at 55
decibels during the day and 45 decibels at night. Green explained
that they are not allowed to make noise restrictions that are more
strict than the state or federal limits.
Next, the committee discussed a height limit, with 50 feet being the
recommendation from BH&S. The eave of the building would be limited
to 35 feet, with 50 feet being a hard limit for everything. Green
agreed with this recommendation after his dealings with Hut 8.
Initially, Green said, Hut 8 said nothing would be over 30 feet.
After some time, however, they came back and said they would need 40
feet. The committee agreed to this.
Fuel containment and tile drainage were discussed next. The fuel
containment is controlled by the state fire marshal, according to
Green. As for tile drainage, the committee agreed with BH&S’
recommendation of having the data center company be responsible for
any drainage tile damage that is tied back to the company.
Anti-phasing was after. Green explained that the data center cannot
transfer ownership of parts of their property to avoid parts of the
ordinance.
Next, the committee discussed soil restoration during
decommissioning. Green stated that, if the M1/M2 zoning restrictions
are put in place (meaning data centers can only be built on the land
zoned M1 or M2 industrial), this would not be a problem. Green said
he did not see there being a situation where, after the data center
left, the land was rezoned agricultural. He said this would cost a
lot of time and money.
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Turner said he was
against this, as he did not see the farm land being able to be
restored. Schmidt argued that these companies should still be
held accountable to try. The committee decided to leave the soil
restoration clause alone.
Low frequency noise was next. It was determined that the United
States does not have standards for these types of sounds. Green
said that there are standards in Europe, but that adopting those
would be difficult to enforce. The committee determined that
requiring a study on these kinds of noises would be beneficial
and left that language in the ordinance.
Two items regarding generators were then discussed. First, if
replacing generators, the data center would need to replace them
with better models. When storing those generators, they would
need to be in structures that limit sound.
Next was insurance. Green said that the BH&S recommendation was
to require them to provide insurance of no less than $5 million.
In areas where insurance is not available, the company would
provide letters of credit or bonds in the maximum amount.
There was a clause on supporting facilities. Any supporting
facilities to the data center, such as a solar field, would be
subject to the data center ordinance as well. BH&S also
recommended against adding a clause that would require the
company to disclose how much they have paid utility companies
for upgrades to power infrastructure. In addition to stating
that the county is not entitled to this information, much of it
is also likely to be confidential. The committee agreed with
this recommendation.
A discussion was had next on penalties for failure to file an
annual report. The recommendation stated it would be $250-$500
per week. Schmidt asked if that amount could be made higher, and
Green informed her that it could be pretty much whatever they
want. Green’s work for making a fee schedule for wind and solar
projects was discussed. The committee then decided to match the
wind and solar fee penalties.
The next two items were the requirement of a study on the use of
non-potable water and landscape buffers. With the landscape, the
trees around the data center would be required to be a certain
height, but that height was not discussed.
The final item discussed was determining whether or not the
county would require data centers to be built on land zoned M1
or M2 industrial. Green shared that a comprehensive plan for the
county is being worked on. The idea would be to direct potential
data centers to land that is already zoned M1 or M2 and not to
have them rezone agricultural land. Green did say that rezoning
would have to be allowed if the county adopted this item.
This was the only item the committee
voted on, and it was a tie vote on adding it. That being the case,
it failed. It was revealed that the Regional Planning Commission
(RPC) or the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) could add this item back
if they wanted to.
Once all of the recommendations were worked through, Green said the
next steps would be putting them together in an actual draft
ordinance and sending them on to RPC and ZBA for review.
Green then gave his Zoning Officer’s report. He said that the Pike
Creek wind farm would be paying their tower fees shortly in the
amount of $610,000. Additionally, Green shared that he got word that
Pike Creek might be looking for more variances, something they said
last month they would not do again. While last time, this was to
keep the project alive, according to Green, this time is to save
money.
Public comments were last. Many of the comments were questions
regarding the ordinance that was just discussed. Allison Isley asked
about the county getting an enforcement officer to help enforce this
ordinance once it was put in place. Lisa Edwards recommended
increasing the setback to a minimum of 1,000 feet. Several others
made comments against data centers. After public comments, the
meeting was adjourned.
[Matt Boutcher]
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