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VIENNA – It’s been six months since trustees voted to place a moratorium on data centers, and now its zoning commission will have to go back to the drawing board.
Trustees at Monday’s special meeting voted 2-1 to send back the township’s zoning code changes, which would establish zoning standards and regulatory requirements governing the siting, construction and expansion of data centers in Vienna, and approved another 180-day moratorium.
Trustee Phil Pegg was the lone vote against both motions.
In terms of what the rejected language looked like, a draft obtained weeks before the meeting shows that data centers would have only been considered as a conditional use permit facility in industrial zoning districts, with a minimum site size of 25 connected acres and max of 100 connected acres, and permits would only be valid for two years from their issuance.
The zoning standards would require data centers and their accessory uses to have a minimum property setback and security buffer yard of 150 feet, and would require data centers and their accessory uses to have a minimum separation distance of 300 feet between any facility and residential structure, residentially zoned property, school, park and place of assembly.
The facility would be required to have an emergency access road for the Vienna Township Fire Department, Ohio Fire Marshal and Trumbull County Engineer, and security fencing would be required.
In terms of noise prevention, a 20-foot landscaped buffer would be required along all public road frontages and acoustic barrier walls and screening fences would be required around generators, substations, cooling systems, mechanical equipment and residential property lines.
Prior to approval, the applicant would be required to provide certified acoustic modeling prepared by a qualified acoustical engineer, a sound impact study and an operational noise analysis, and decibel levels of 65 would be allowed during daytime periods and 55 would be allowed in the evening.
The applicant also would be required to submit an electrical capacity, water demand and fiber connectivity study, as well as a wastewater analysis, and would be required to fund all utility extensions, upgrades, relocations, and infrastructure improvements required to serve the facility.
The proposed zoning change includes a decommissioning plan that details the removal of servers and networking equipment, site improvements and an environmental assessment and remediation of any contaminated soil, groundwater or other environmental impacts resulting from facility operations.
Pegg said Tuesday evening that residents, during a public hearing, mentioned there were no specifics in a number of sections approved by the zoning commission, but they could have been added at a later time, and the base they had was “more than adequate.”
“We are again without any zoning regulations for another six months, because the whole process has to start over again; they have to write it in, it has to be approved by our legal (counsel); it has to be approved again by the zoning commission,” Pegg said. “It is then sent to the (Trumbull County) Planning Commission, who takes another month or two depending on when they receive it, because they only meet once a month.”
Pegg said Vienna looks “business unfriendly” because another moratorium extension puts them at 14 to 15 months with one in place, which suggests officials don’t want business.
Trustee Mike Haddle admitted he was on the fence about passing the language, adding he ultimately chose to move cautiously and have the zoning commission look over some of the language.
“You run a risk of other things coming up and not correcting the language, so it’s better better to err on the side of caution, get it done, send it back down, let them review it. If they think there needs to be changes, then send it back to us; maybe there is, maybe there’s not,” Haddle said. “I don’t know, that’s on the zoning board to decide.”
Haddle said he understands where the zoning commission is coming from and the amount of work put into the language, and there were just minor things that could have been changed. He echoed comments about residents suggesting stricter requirements on certain parts of the article, but also wanting to make things reasonable and not restrictive.