The Seward City Council on March 17 added a zoning category and specific regulations to govern development of data centers in the city or its extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction, which is a two-mile perimeter of the current city limits.
The Seward Planning Commission earlier endorsed the added regulations.
Seward’s action came the same week that media covering state issues were reporting on Legislative Bill 1261, which would potentially allow private power companies to build plants to serve individual industrial sites, and news that one such power company was optioning land in four Nebraska counties east and south of Seward County.
These power plants have been linked to discussion of additional large data centers being built in the state.
Seward Building, Zoning and Code Enforcement Director Tim Dworak told council members the city’s current zoning code did not address data centers, which place heavy demands on public electric and water services, and may create noise issues.
Because of those potential issues, Dworak said the city views the centers as industrial land uses and offered tiers of allowable operations in commercial and industrial areas.
But keeping zoning regulations current for technology companies is “a moving target,” Dworak said.
Mayor Josh Eickmeier agreed.
“Technology tends to move faster than the government it needs to be working with,” Eickmeier said.
City officials discovered there is already a small data center operating in its extra territorial jurisdiction north of the city limits and another planned near the airport.
Dworak said he contacted the business owner north of town and discussed the proposed regulations, and the regulations seemed on track with them.
“They were very upfront,” Dworak said, noting such companies are sensitive to privacy issues because they are dealing with data.
He said the business was noticed because of the size of its generator and the presence of 14 central air conditioning units.
Dworak said the city also conferred with other municipalities to craft the regulations.
Council Member Jessica Kolterman said the changes were appreciated.
“I am glad we are doing this. I think it is good we are ahead of the curve on this,” she said.
Electrical capacity
triggers zoning
The city regulations require any data center requiring 65 kilowatts or more of electrical capacity to comply with its regulations, which include use of closed-loop or recycled water-cooling systems, collaboration with the city to plan wastewater infrastructure, standard office parking and prescribed timeframes for the use of generators during power outages or testing.
The new use category defines a data center as a “centralized repository engaging in the storage, management, processing, conversion, data mining, and/or dissemination of digital data and information, and housing computer and/or network equipment, systems, servers, appliances and other associated components related to digital data operations.”
Dworak said this definition would also include a cryptocurrency business.
Members of the planning commission had questions about the regulation of windows or doors, which is labeled fenestration in architectural plans, and asked staff to come back with additional information on that for the city’s industrial campus.
Dworak said the use of doors and windows can make industrial buildings look more like office buildings.
Big data centers
rumored
Nebraska legislators’ recent debate on LB1261 was, as of March 19, in “enrollment and review,” which involves amendments being incorporated into the proposed bill and checked for technical and grammatical accuracy before it advances to the next phase of debate and consideration as a select file.
The Flatwater Free Press reported that Nebraska-based Tenaska had optioned hundreds of acres of land in Gage, Lancaster, Otoe and Cass counties for possible power plant construction to service a large industrial park, but no specific plans had been shared.
The Nebraska Examiner reported March 18 that lawmakers in 11 states have proposed legislation to at least temporarily ban data centers while they study the impact they have on local economies and the environment.
At that point, however, no moratoriums had been enacted.
In some places, state and local leaders have worked to protect consumers from possible increases in their utility bills and negative impact from some tax breaks, the Examiner reported.
Google now has data centers in Omaha, Lincoln and Papillion, and Flatwater shared reports of plans for an even larger data center that would require 1,000 to 3,000 megawatts of power, which it said is more than the 800 megawatts needed by Lincoln Electric to service that city in the summer.
