Middle TN elected officials aim to hit pause on data centers in their communities

ROBERTSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Cities in Robertson County are the latest municipalities to look at regulations and restrictions for potential data centers — and Cedar Hill could be outright banning them for the next two years.

Cedar Hill Mayor John Edwards told News 2 it’s a new frontier the city is tackling with the rest of Middle Tennessee; tonight he’s bringing a moratorium to city commissioners.

“It kind of brings up a topic of looking at the future which is what we are looking at right now and where do data centers fit into that future?” Edwards said.

It’s a topic Edwards looked into after he became aware of a controversial data center proposed in Franklin, Kentucky, just across the county line.

“That’s really when I started looking into it and I said, ‘How is this going to impact the county? How is this going to impact my community?’” Edwards said. 

He plans to bring forward to city commissioners a moratorium that hits pause on data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities for the next two years. He said during that pause, the city can study and evaluate the impacts data centers have on everything from the environment to infrastructure.

“Basically, pushing pause until we really evaluate them and what the impacts are going to be as far as the land quality, the people, the land the farmland,” Edwards said.

Cedar Hill isn’t the only community looking to slow down the progress on data centers in the county.

This week the City of Springfield is also looking at ways to get ahead of data centers. The planning commission is discussing a possible zoning ordinance amendment pertaining to data related land uses.

And in Davidson County, one Metro Council member has already proposed legislation regulating and restricting data centers.

“It is the wild, wild west; we don’t have any current rules or restrictions covering data centers in our Metro code of ordinances,” Rollin Horton, Metro Nashville District 20 Councilmember said.

Horton introduced a bill to put regulations and restrictions in place for data centers here in Davidson County. The bill would ban any large data centers over 500,000 square feet, which is equivalent to over nine football fields.  

He said anything smaller will require a public hearing through the board of zoning appeals.   

Meanwhile in Cedar Hill, the Mayor Edwards is bringing his moratorium forward tonight and expects a positive response.  

A lot of folks have reached out and messaged me — folks I don’t even know; they are complete strangers — and they have said, “I’m so glad someone is talking about this especially locally,’” Edwards said. 

Edwards said if the moratorium passes, it will go into effect immediately.   

A first reading for the bill Horton proposed in Metro Council will be heard Tuesday, June 2.