US Cities Draft Stricter Data Center Zoning and Utility Rules

Municipalities across the United States are introducing restrictive ordinances to manage the growth of data centers, focusing on utility costs, environmental impact, and zoning. In Fayetteville, North Carolina, the City Council is preparing to vote on legislation that would reclassify data centers as conditional uses. This move requires developers to provide energy management plans and water use projections to prevent resource-heavy facilities from inflating utility rates for residents.

Similar efforts are underway in Missouri and Kansas. The Joplin Planning and Zoning Commission recently tabled a proposed ordinance that would restrict data centers to heavy industrial districts and mandate noise limits and closed-loop cooling systems to protect local water supplies. Meanwhile, the government of Pottawatomie County, Kansas, is reviewing a draft to create a data center overlay district, which would limit building height and require facilities to be located near high-voltage power lines to mitigate infrastructure strain.

In Springfield, Illinois, the conflict centers on energy costs. City Water, Lights, and Power is seeking to eliminate discounted large load energy rates, arguing that previous incentives for bitcoin miners are no longer sustainable for modern large-scale data centers. Local officials in these regions emphasize that while they are not banning the technology, they must safeguard public resources and infrastructure from the high demands of AI-driven facilities.