New Castle County Council tabled an ordinance at its Nov. 18 meeting seeking to regulate data centers.
Several Councilmembers raised concerns about the bill’s constitutionality, particularly relating to sections permitting retroactivity. If passed with that language, Project Washington, a proposed 6 million square-foot data center, would have to follow rules that didn’t exist when its developers first began planning.
The county’s Land Use Committee meeting earlier this month saw heated debate on Councilmember David Carter’s ordinance, which seeks to regulate data centers in numerous ways, including requiring they be built at least 1 thousand feet from residential communities and abide by water use rules.
Council delayed a vote on the ordinance after Councilmember Janet Kilpatrick presented last-minute floor amendments. Carter said the amendments were more extensive than any he’s seen in his time on County Council.
“I feel like it's going to be an entirely new piece of legislation,” Carter said. “You should go through the legislative process… because it really is, I think, to do something that extensive and last minute is very disrespectful of the public.”
Kilpatrick said the ordinance as it stood before would make New Castle County an undesirable place for data centers to locate, costing the county the possible economic benefits.
“In my mind, the best case scenario would have been to throw this one out and start over,” Kilpatrick said.
Carter already agreed earlier this month to drop the language permitting retroactivity. Kilpatrick presented three floor amendments that would see most of the regulations in the bill dropped.
“It has scared people to death thinking that we're just going to let them drain every creek we have and every aquifer and not have to have any discussion about if there's enough electric…” Kilpatrick said. “You don't just build until everybody gives you permission to use the utilities that will be needed.”
Carter argued any data centers coming in should meet the highest standards if they choose to set up shop in New Castle County.
“We're going to do it right, and we're going to protect our communities from almost all the negative impacts that we can,” Carter said. “So as we do that analysis, that will kind of be the criteria I look at. Are we bringing in a developer or allowing a developer to work that is going to meet that high standard? Because I think Delawareans deserve that high of a standard.”
The ordinance remains on County Council’s Dec. 9 agenda, but Carter said that could change if there isn’t enough time for analysis, review and public engagement.
