Seward County is now one of several Nebraska counties to block any immediate effort to establish a data center within its boundaries.
Seward County Commission Chair Misty Ahmic said in an interview July 1 that no one has applied to place a data center here, but the commissioners wanted to be prepared for any such application that might be made before the county has relevant conditional use zoning regulations in place.
The moratorium means the county will not accept any applications for conditional use permits or building permits for data centers for the 12 months that started after its vote on June 30 unless the county enacts such zoning regulations prior to that time.
Ahmic said if regulations are not in place within that 12-month period, the moratorium could be extended.
Commissioners Darrell Zabrocki and Scott Pekarek joined Ahmic in voting for the moratorium. Commissioners Raegan Hain and Ken Schmieding were absent from the meeting.
Ahmic said two members of the public attended the commissioners’ June 30 meeting and one person asked a question, but no one spoke in favor or in opposition to data centers or the moratorium.
She cited concerns across southeast Nebraska about the energy and water data centers require, as well as the Nebraska Legislature’s enactment of Legislative Bill 663, which takes effect in mid-July.
That legislation, which was intended to improve county zoning processes for ag producers, requires county boards to make decisions based on their zoning regulations, establishes timelines for county commissioners to act on permit applications and mandates education hours for certain county officials, like the planning commission.
In a news release issued in February when Gov. Jim Pillen signed the bill into law, District 43 Sen. Tanya Storer of Cherry County said the bill was intended to preserve the local control counties need and transparency for ag producers expanding and diversifying operations.
Ahmic said the legislation would require a county without specific regulations for data centers to look for a similar land use currently in the zoning regulations and base decisions on those regulations if an application were pending.
“We do not have something like that now,” she said. “Deciding without regulations would be very difficult.”
The moratorium is a county board-driven action, she said, and she and Pekarek will work with members of the county planning commission and a consultant who can bring expertise on the topic to write local regulations.
“We are not the experts,” she said.
She and others have seen recent regulations adopted by the city of Seward and regulations enacted by other counties in and out of Nebraska.
“We have to look at what is out there and what has worked, and what is the impact on these communities,” Ahmic said.
She is planning meetings involving representatives from the Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District which covers the western part of the county, the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District, which covers the east, and other experts in the field. But she noted that some of the experts the county has had speak at meetings on water-related topics have differing views of the aquifers and the county’s water situation.
“We are kind of in a crud spot,” Ahmic said. “We are right in the middle and that is not an easy place to be.”
Seward County land sits on the eastern end of the Ogallala Aquifer, the western part of the Dakota Aquifer and some of the Saline Aquifer.
