MORE: Commissioners who spoke alongside Mayor Wamp on Tuesday morning were supportive of this proposal.
Commissioner Steve Highlander, who represents a lot of rural northeastern Hamilton County, said, “We don’t need inflationary costs on the water and electricity. We don’t need brownouts or water storages. But if it doesn’t happen, that’s great, put them in. But we need to exercise some caution.”
Commissioner Gene-O Shipley, who represents a lot of rural areas north of Soddy-Daisy, said, “The decision to put in the moratorium is the right thing to do for the rural areas for sure. I’m not sure that it wouldn’t be the right thing to do for municipal areas as well because the infrastructure is going to have to be very strong to support these.”
Even commissioners in urban areas indicated support such as David Sharpe, who said, “I do not believe that we will work out all of these details over the course of 12 months, but I’m certainly supportive of a 12 month moratorium and frankly, I believe we could probably go little further than that.”
Nathan Janeway, the county’s director of developmental services who will oversee the Planning Department, added, “We would never want to degrade any of the fire protection or anything like that in the unincorporated Hamilton County areas. Sewer is a huge constraint so we’re going to want to have really good conversations with WWTA and understand what their capacity is out in the unincorporated areas.”
Mayor Wamp added that, “Residents in rural areas are really frustrated by growth. They don’t feel like their voice has been heard… The north part of this county has been rural for 200 years. A lot of it ought to remain rural.”
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WDEF) — Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp has announced a proposal for a one-year moratorium on new data centers to gather community input and further study the impacts on rural communities.
The proposed moratorium marks the first major initiative of the new Hamilton County Planning Department, which officially begins operations July 1.
“Developments like data centers, with the potential to negatively affect our unincorporated communities, are exactly why we established a county planning department,” said Mayor Wamp. “We’re taking a proactive approach by giving our planning department time to meet with local utility providers and study the impacts of data centers in rural areas so that we can thoughtfully plan for the county’s future.”
They say during the one-year pause, Planning Department staff will review best practices from other communities that have adopted data center regulations, meet with TVA, EPB, and local water providers to better understand the demands data centers could place on utilities, and gather input from residents and community leaders.
The Hamilton County Commission is scheduled to consider the proposed resolution at its July 1 agenda session, with a vote anticipated at its July 15 meeting.
