Today I'm happy to announce the La Porte County Board of Commissioners passed our county's first Data Center Ordinance.
When I made the motion to approve it, I pointed out that this is a good first step in the right direction.
It's important to understand that the BOC only had three options this morning-
1- to approve it
2- to deny it
3- return to the Plan Commission for additional consideration
Had we exercised the third option, the Plan Commission would have had to review it and have an additional hearing, meaning that it would likely be 6-8 weeks at the earliest the BOC would have the opportunity to vote on it again.
The risk with that would mean any company could file between now and then and wouldn't have been subject to any of the restrictions we put in place today. I wasn't willing to take that risk and have a company get in under the wire.
I asked for, and Commissioner Holifield indicated the Data Center Committee will, be taking this up again soon and the Plan Commission will hopefully develop another Data Center Ordinance with additional protections after hearing from public.
From what I understand, we are only the second County in the state to adopt a Data center ordinance. Also, thank you to Commissioner Holifield and the PC Committee for their hard work on this ordinance.
Again, it's very important to understand this is a first step with immediate protections until we can, hopefully, get an even better Ordinance to vote on from the Plan Commission.
#FirstSteps #justthebeginning #notdoneyet
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