MARSHALL – One week after the Buncombe County Commission extended the moratorium on virtual currency/data processing operations by one year on May 7, Madison County commissioners have chosen another option and instead closed such facilities. elected to approve changes to the land use ordinance, including restrictive language. .
Madison County granted a one-year grace period on June 13, 2023, to give the county time to include the language in its land use ordinance, which did not mention such facilities at the time.
With that moratorium set to end next month, the county unanimously approved a resolution written by Development Services Director Brad Gass that includes amended land use ordinance language to reflect the data processing facility.
On March 19, the County Planning Commission met to strengthen draft language in the land use ordinance regarding such facilities and approved recommended changes to commissioners.
The Madison County Commission unanimously approved the Planning Commission's recommendation at its May 14 meeting.
“Data processing facilities are just one type of a group of uses that many people think of as cryptomining, but all kinds of industrial computer servers and uses fall under data processing facility land uses,” Gass said. Ta.
Like the county's definition of a biomass facility, Gass said the planning commission's recommended regulations for data processing facilities are based on a number of criteria, including size.
A small data processing facility comprises less than 10,000 square feet of server space.
Small data processing facilities are allowed in commercial districts, and large facilities are allowed in industrial districts.
The Planning Commission's draft plan lists numerous requirements regarding height, separation of uses, filing requirements, access, safety fencing, screening, public works notices, signage and noise.
Land use ordinance changes recommended by the Planning Commission included an 8-foot minimum height. The structure itself may not exceed 35 feet in height. All electrical wiring must be underground.
In addition, the entire perimeter of the facility must be separated from adjacent properties by a buffer strip.
This property is subject to the Madison County Noise Ordinance and must not interfere with adjacent land use activities.
The resolution approved by the commissioners reads in part: “The development and regulation of data processing facilities is essential to supporting the economic development and technological advancement of Madison County.”
Feedback from the Board of Directors
Board member Jeremy Hensley asked Gass if the prospective applicant had contacted the county about the possibility of bringing a data processing facility to Madison, and Gass said no.
Gass said the county's intention to include language regulating data processing facilities was influenced by Western North Carolinians' reaction to Cherokee County, the state's westernmost county, which has hundreds of thousands of acres of undeveloped forest and few land regulations. Residents were outraged in 2019, saying that it had also been promoted. Cryptocurrency mines began to open, and the days and nights were filled with the hum of industrial fans.
Another problem is that local landfills are struggling with large amounts of electronics and Styrofoam packaging waste.
At a March meeting of the Madison County Planning Commission, Chris Joyel, director of health communities for Mountain True, which has worked with Cherokee County and its three existing facilities, said that both e-waste and Styrofoam waste are being disposed of in Cherokee County. said these are the two most serious problems at the facility.
Details: Buncom extends suspension periodBuncombe extends moratorium: California Bitcoin mining company.Upending Cherokee County in Western North Carolina
More information: Board considers encryption facilityMadison Planning Commission considers how to handle potential data processing facility
Read more: MadCo finalizes biomass regulationsAfter 18-month grace period, Madison County finalizes biomass regulations
Deputy Commissioner Michael Garrison praised Gass' work on regulation.
“With the use of separation and boundaries, if you use one of these, you draw a pretty definitive line that you can't use it in someone's backyard,” Garrison said.
But board member Bill Briggs said he felt 10,000 square feet was too high a size limit for a small facility.
“Ten thousand square feet, that's not a small place,” Briggs said. “And it's supposed to be a small facility.”
Gass made a distinction between small data processing facilities and residences.
“It's not necessarily small compared to your house,” Gass says.
Briggs questioned whether the county could prohibit all applicants from establishing data processing facilities within Madison County boundaries, but Gass said that was not possible.
“We can't rule anything out,” Gass said. “We need a place in our ordinance to allow them to be found. Then we could change the area in our ordinance to have it in, so it's only allowed in industrial zones. It would be more restrictive. It becomes a target.
“But the planning commission and working group that worked on this felt that we had enough buffers and enough control over it so that it didn't negatively impact other businesses in the commercial district that we own. It's very limited, so these won't necessarily be installed next to someone's house.”
Johnny Casey has covered Madison County for three years for the Citizen Times and the News-Record & Sentinel. He won the 2023 North Carolina Press Association Award for Best Beat News Reporting. Contact him at 828-210-6074 or jcasey@citizentimes.com.
