HOWLAND — Another Trumbull County community has joined the ranks of officials taking action on disallowing data centers from entering the area.

Trustees at Wednesday’s regular meeting approved a six-month moratorium on the acceptance, review and approval of all applications for zoning certificates, conditional use permits, variants or rezonings, as well as other required approvals for establishing, constructing or operating a data center in the township.

The moratorium is renewable for an additional six months, if necessary, and trustees may extend it for an additional reasonable period as needed to complete the study and adopt zoning amendments.

The resolution states the moratorium applies to all zoning districts within the township and will apply to new applications submitted after its effective date.

The resolution states the township’s zoning commission plans to undergo a comprehensive review of data center development and prepare recommendations, which will include their uses and impacts on the community, model regulations and approaches by other state and nationwide communities and zoning district classifications.

The commission also will develop definitions, use classifications and development regulations for electrical demand and utility infrastructure, noise from generators, cooling equipment and mechanical systems and compatibility with surrounding land uses.

Trustee Frank Dillon said after the meeting that officials have not heard anything about a developer wishing to enter the township, but they were just looking to get ahead of things if they are approached.

Trustee James LaPolla questioned whether the moratorium encompasses property within the Warren-Howland-Warren Joint Economic Development District board, which was created to oversee the Kimberly-Clark project that straddles Howland and Warren townships.

LaPolla asked if the JEDD had to make its own rules and regulations on data centers.

“The JEDD board has adopted the township’s zoning generally, but it’s its own entity — so we’ll be looking at this as well,” said Planning Director Kim Mascarella.

Trustee Matthew Vansuch said the township prefers to be proactive on topics, but it was unfortunate that they had to be reactive in this case.

“I think it’s a neutral statement to say this is moving very, very fast; the zoning commission was working really hard on some other things, and there’s only so much time in the day to do things,” Vansuch said. “So yeah, we needed to put a pause on this, so that we could have appropriate standards like we regulate everything else in Howland.”

Vansuch noted some who say officials regulate too much, but he said they regulate to protect the community.

“Normally we don’t do moratoriums, because usually we’re ahead of the game on things, and this one, we are not — like everyone else,” Vansuch said. “We need to give the zoning commission some space to breathe.”

LaPolla said once it’s proven that statewide regulations will make it safer for the township and not affect electric prices or change its water system and source, then officials can reconsider in six months — if they desire putting something in.

Vansuch said there are some things officials can and can’t regulate, adding that data centers are changing and some are big and others are small.

“We need to be not reactive, just to think of the really big ones, there can be smaller-sized ones, where we would normally think, ‘Oh, data centers could go in only a few places in Howland,” Vansuch said. “Technology is moving so quickly, that might not be the case in a year, so they might have smaller footprints.”

LaPolla recalled technology’s evolution throughout the decades, going from tubes to transistors to microchips.

“I think, personally, data centers are now in their early stage, and I just think they get smaller and smaller because they get more high-tech,” LaPolla said. “But I agree with what we have here, I think it’s a good start, I think it doesn’t throw us to the wolves and it allows us to be proactive.”