Council moves to extend Lexington's pause on data center development, restart zoning process
Following a lengthy public hearing Tuesday, Lexington’s Urban County Council moved to extend Fayette County’s pause on data center development until October 31, 2027, as the body continues working to regulate them.
Spurred on by the sale of a former Lexmark property to a data center developer, Council has spent the last few months studying the facilities, along with their environmental and electrical grid impacts.
In June, the body unanimously passed a moratorium – or temporary pause – on their development in Fayette County, effective through October 31, 2026. Council had also directed the Planning Commission to develop a zoning ordinance text amendment (updates to Lexington’s zoning laws) so it could modernize its regulation of data centers.
What did residents say about data centers at public hearing?
Councilmembers discussed the Planning Commission’s recommendations Tuesday after a public hearing that lasted for several hours and saw nearly 60 residents and individuals sign up to address the Council.
From representatives of Lexington’s business community to members of the Bluegrass Democratic Socialists of America, their message was clear: Lexington needs more time to properly regulate data centers, including determining where they should go and what types of restrictions they should have.
Most speakers opposed data centers or wanted much stricter limits on the facilities. Many in the room called for a ban on hyperscale data centers (those with an energy capacity exceeding 25 megawatts) and some supported a complete ban on new data centers in Fayette County.
Speakers raised several concerns about data centers’ potential land use impacts, from electricity and water consumption to higher utility bills, strains on the electrical grid, noise, pollution, waste heat and potential negative health effects for nearby residents.
Representatives of Commerce Lexington, banks, telecommunications companies, and the University of Kentucky stressed that smaller data centers and server rooms already exist in Lexington and support local businesses and institutions here, particularly those that rely on data storage and processing, from hospitals to schools. They cautioned against overly broad restrictions that could hurt Lexington’s economic development.
What did the Council's motions include?
The deciding motions came from District 1 Councilmember Tyler Morton and District 4 Councilmember Emma Curtis.
Morton successfully moved to remove most of the Planning Commission’s recommendations for data centers and server rooms from the draft zoning ordinance text amendment (ZOTA), allowing the Council to move forward with its own approach to regulating data centers in Fayette County.
Morton had previously questioned the fairness of the recommendations, which proposed allowing smaller-scale data centers in Lexington’s industrial and commercial zones – which are concentrated in District 1 and on the city’s northside.
Morton also successfully moved to advance a resolution launching a new zoning ordinance text amendment process that will look at creating a separate zoning category for data centers.
The new process will not be under the tight timeline Lexington’s Planning Commission faced to deliver its recommendations to Council, and it will include more opportunities for residents to engage, Morton told CivicLex in an interview after the hearing.
Curtis moved to advance a resolution extending the current data center moratorium through to October 31, 2027.
What happens next?
Morton and Curtis’ resolutions will move through Council’s regular legislative process, with final votes expected at an upcoming Council meeting.