Shelby County Plan Commission to consider data center ordinance at Tuesday meeting

A Tuesday meeting of the Shelby County Plan Commission will open discussion and debate over a proposed ordinance on data centers that might target the county.

The meeting is being held at Shelbyville High School's Breck Auditorium at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

In February, The Shelby County Commissioners adopted a resolution imposing a moratorium on the filing, processing, review, and acceptance of new applications for data centers while an ordinance was developed for regulating this land use.

The Commissioners contracted with Deborah Luzier of Code Crafters to draft the ordinance with the input of a committee. Luzier serves as the Legislative and Policy Committee chair of the Indiana Chapter of the American Planning Association and has more than 30 years of experience in writing and updating land use codes in Indiana.

The Commissioners Ordinance Review Committee includes government officials, utility providers, and community leaders. The current ordinance draft for review by the Plan Commission incorporates revisions to the initial draft suggested by members of the committee. The committee came to a consensus on most items included in the draft.

Shelby County Commissioner Nathan Runnebohm appeared on The Morning Show on GIANT fm on Tuesday.

The following meeting format is detailed in the plan commission meetings material information:

This is a public hearing, and any member of the public will have the opportunity to comment on the ordinance draft. However, in the interest of time and to promote an orderly meeting, the Commissioners have established specific rules for public comment:

Members of the public must sign up to speak either before the meeting or as they enter the meeting room. Names will be called to speak in the order that each person signed up. To sign up ahead of time, please contact the Planning Department as noted below.

Comment will be strictly limited to 2 minutes per person. At the discretion of the Planning Department, members of the public may combine their 2-minutes and designate a spokesperson. For spokesperson arrangements, please contact the Planning Department before the meeting as noted below.

Members of the public are encouraged to submit comments to the Planning Department prior to the meeting. Any comments submitted to the Planning Department as noted below and before the meeting date will be forwarded to all Board members for consideration.

Comments should be limited to the ordinance draft. Note that Shelby County has no jurisdiction over the data center proposed within the city limits of Shelbyville or any actions taken by the City regarding the proposed data center.