Community continues its opposition, calling for greater limits
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The City of Kokomo crept closer this week to establishing some development standards for a potential data center. But the efforts of the administration of Mayor Tyler Moore and the Kokomo Common Council have gone greatly unappreciated to date.
The council held a first hearing on an ordinance to set limits on data centers at its Aug. 24 meeting, and the chambers filled with angry citizens ready to resume their months-long fight. The hearing began with ground rules from council president Greg Davis: sign up to speak; two-minute time limit; stay on topic.
Bryan Stumpf, PLA, AICP, Studio Lead for Community Development with HWC Engineering, which assisted in developing the ordinance, was then called to the microphone to explain the process that resulted in the ordinance under consideration. He explained that the legislation was developed with a steering committee, though the members of that committee were not disclosed.
Stumpf identified the three areas affected by the proposed ordinance. One is compliance with changes in state law, which allows schools to be placed in any zoning district, indoor shooting ranges to occupy agricultural, commercial, and industrial districts, and retail sporting goods stores in more commercial districts.
The second area involves adjusting heights and setbacks for medium and heavy industrial zones, allowing small residential units in certain residential zoning, addressing lot coverage, residential use in downtown as it pertains to parking, fence and wall standards, expanded greenspace requirements in parking lots, encouraging electric vehicle charging stations, and expanded “grandfather” exemptions to certain buildings.
But the crowd and the concern is focused on the proposed ordinance’s third area of effect: data centers.
“Currently they are permitted by right, and with the ordinance that exists today, they can be built 35 feet from the property line next to a residential home, with only a five-foot fence,” said Stumpf. “So, the concern is no one wants to see that happen. We’ve looked at the information that was provided, the meetings you had over the past several months, and have created a new section 6.75 with standards specific to data centers.”
Stumpf explained that the changes will establish a 200-foot setback from a property line with a residential use, including a 300-foot minimum setback from an existing home. It also would require power lines to be setback at least 100 feet from the property line. There are restrictions on equipment testing and demands for a landscaping buffer between the data center and the rest of the world.
“Right now, you could do it with just a five-foot fence,” said Stumpf. “In here, we’re specifying that you have to install a five-foot berm with evergreens planted no more than 12 feet apart, all the way through to create a solid buffer.”
The proposed changes also would require a data center developer to fully disclose any phased expansion plans.
Knowing of the criticisms that have arisen in Kokomo regarding the proposed changes, Stumpf tried to address them before they were raised again.
“Many of the recommendations we saw come through, such as decommissioning plans, roadway maintenance agreements, first responder training, things like that, those are operations issues, not land use issues,” said Stumpf. “It’s not appropriate for them to be in the land use ordinance. They more appropriately belong in a development agreement.
“Some of these things aren’t in here (because) they’re already addressed in your ordinance. Right now, your ordinance identifies that sustained noise cannot exceed 50 decibels adjacent to a residential use. That’s actually a lower number than what we’re seeing in other communities and ordinances we help with their data centers.
“Your ordinance already addresses building size, so the LI district, your light industrial district, is capped at a maximum of total building area 400 square feet. Your MI district caps the total square footage at 1,200 square feet. A hyperscale data center would have to be in the HI district.”
Stumpf added that some utility requirements already exist in the zoning ordinance as well, though it only requires that the needed utilities are present. He then warned that land uses of similar scale and intensity must be treated equally or risk legal challenges.
“We have a 200-foot setback that has a logical connection between the concerns about the scale of the building and the noise level to that distance,” said Stumpf. “It would be inappropriate to say, ‘Well, 200 feet is good; 2,000 feet is great.’ You lose that connection open yourself up to potential legal challenges.”
With no questions from the council concerning the content of the ordinance or how it came about, the floor was opened to the public. Immediately, there were calls for water usage studies, increased setbacks, construction timeframes, and increased limits on light and noise pollution. Resident Brooke Walsh cautioned the council that inaction on community concerns will have political consequences.
“The people are growing more and more restless every day, and we’re losing respect for the people for which they once voted,” said Walsh. “Every decision you make seems to go against the people of Kokomo, and trust me, we notice.”
Resident Linda Kendall resurrected the idea of a moratorium on data center development so that the council could examine things like water usage, energy consumption, and noise pollution. Davis chose to respond to the suggestion.
“There was conversation about moratorium, and the council at that time did not have a majority who would support a moratorium,” said Davis.
Davis then read a communique he received from Councilman Jeff Plough, who was unsuccessful in finding support on the council for a moratorium.
“… As additional time was devoted to research and evaluation, it became evident that a data center moratorium alone would not adequately address the broader issues due to the inherent limitations of such a measure,” Plough wrote. “Further analysis also demonstrated that moratoriums are of temporary nature and do not provide a permanent solution. Additionally, a moratorium focused solely on data centers would not apply to other industrial-scale developments that could potentially locate within the industrial park.”
Seeing no path forward with a moratorium, Plough relayed to Davis a desire to strengthen “development standards, requirements, and expectations” for potential industrial investments.
“There’s been a collaborative effort with Councilman Plough’s committee, with the director of development for the City of Kokomo, with Director Greg Sheline from Plan Commission, and also HWC,” said Davis. “All these people came together. They took into consideration all the things that people have talked about and brought up as concerns …
“A moratorium was just kicking the can down the road as far as we were concerned. We wanted to address the real problems.”
Davis then took shelter from responding to specific details concerning data centers because the council doesn’t have a data center proposal in front of them.
“We’re simply talking about updating our zoning ordinances for anything that would come into that industrial park,” said Davis.
Resident Wendy Selley took a different approach. Instead of opposing what is being considered, she asked how public commentary might prompt changes to the proposed ordinance.
“As people have recommendations for changes in this document, how do they submit those changes, and what will be the process to potentially get those changes included in the next reading,” Selley asked.
Councilman Matt Grecu encouraged residents to email him with changes to consider. Davis said he was writing down the concerns raised.
“It’s not falling on deaf ears,” said Davis. “I’m writing those down to consider over the next few weeks.”
Following public comment, the council called for the vote. The ordinance passed 6-2 on first reading, with Plough and Councilman Bob Stephenson voting against the measure. Councilwoman Crystal Sanburn was not in attendance. Stephenson’s reasoning for voting no was explained on Facebook and in a letter to the editor published in the Kokomo Lantern.
The council will consider the ordinance again on its second reading, which will take place Mon., Sept. 14, at 6 p.m., in the council chambers at City Hall. An informational meeting will precede the hearing at 5:30 p.m.