By John Dobberstein, Editor
A week after a proposed data center in Broken Arrow fell through, the City Council plans to discuss a moratorium on the developments Monday at a special meeting.
City officials are mulling a 6-month moratorium on data center proposals at the recommendation of City Manager Michael Spurgeon. If approved, the moratorium would be effective immediately and would mean land use development applications for a proposed data center would not be accepted.
During the proposed moratorium the city would study data centers and all potential impacts they can have on communities – including, electrical consumption and potential rate impacts on surrounding customers, water demand, noise generation, traffic.
The city also wants to study tax exemptions granted at the state level, and any increased demands on public infrastructure. If more time is needed to finish the study, the moratorium could be extended another 6 months.
The city’s zoning ordinance does not specify a data center as a use, so the pause would provide the City Council and city staff to review the zoning regulations, “to best determine the appropriate zoning designation for a data center.”
Late last week, a letter of intent (LOI) agreement expired between the private property owner, Rex Robertson, and a prospective company for the purchase of 52 acres in east Broken Arrow for a potential data center. At the time, Spurgeon said he wouldn’t be surprised if another data center proposal eventually surfaced in Broken Arrow.
Beale Infrastructure pulled out of a data center proposal in Coweta earlier this year that was the subject of much controversy due to transparency concerns expressed by residents.
Many cities across Oklahoma have been discussing or have already approved moratoriums, including Edmond and Oklahoma City. Other municipalities across the U.S. have taken or are considering similar action. There are currently more than 4,300 data centers across the U.S.
Spurgeon said Friday he believes the moratorium is necessary after what the city has learned about data centers in the last 6 to 8 months, especially in the last 45 days.
“I believe it is appropriate for the City Council to consider this pause at a time when there are no potential projects or applications for a proposed data center project on the table, so we can learn as much as possible about the potential impacts and review our zoning ordinance,” Spurgeon said in a statement.
“We know there are data centers for many different uses and are built to very different specifications. These differences make it challenging to truly understand the impacts data centers could have on our community’s resources.”
The meeting on June 15 will be held at Broken Arrow City Hall at 6:30 p.m. A live stream will be available on the city’s website.
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