New Castle County Council will likely vote on an ordinance regulating data centers at its meeting Tuesday, March 10.
Councilmember David Carter has worked on the data center regulation ordinance he’s sponsoring for the better part of six months, making substantial concessions from his original measure to garner needed support.
The original version would have placed heavy restrictions on any data centers setting up shop in New Castle County, including a minimum 1,000 foot distance between data centers and residential zones.
Carter's substitute ordinance would allow data centers as close at 500 feet from residential zoning districts as long as their noise levels don't exceed allowable levels expressed in New Castle County Code.
The original version banned footcandles at the property's borders to residential areas and capped noise impact at 55 decibels, about the level of a standard conversation or music playing in the background.
The original and updated ordinances both require a noise study to be conducted in surrounding areas.
“Every change I've made I wish was still in there,” Carter said. “But it still does modernize our zoning. It does appropriately put it into only a couple of zoning categories, where it belongs. And I think it's a significant improvement, although far from perfect. But I will do the best I can.”
His third version does mandate a closed loop cooling system to reduce water use.
Large data centers like the one proposed near Delaware City can use up to 5 million gallons of water per day. That’s as much as a town of 10 to 50 thousand people consume in a day.
Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control rejected the proposed Project Washington data center in accordance with the Coastal Zone Act. Starwood Ventures has since appealed that decision.
Carter argued public sentiment is strongly on his side to deliver data center regulations.
“I look at these data centers now; they have a real public relations issue,” Carter said. “And if they're smart business people, they will realize one of the things that help them improve their public image is to commit to do the very best development they can with serious consideration to community.”
He added the argument that regulations would turn away business from the First State is a tired excuse.
"That is the same worn out story that an ineffective Chamber of Commerce and business community of Delaware use for every single issue, and I think they need to wake up and learn that you can do it right, and that indeed, if you don't do it right, it's going to hurt businesses," Carter concluded.
Several Councilmembers also voiced concern over a retroactive enforcement element in the original ordinance, but Carter dropped that language in November.
In a previous interview with Delaware Public Media, Carter said he would be open to discussing data centers with developers, but he’s not interested in doing so in private.
“They talked about they really wanted to meet with me and blah, blah, blah, but quite frankly, they can call me anytime,” Carter said in October. “I hadn't heard from them, and I'm happy to meet with them in any public forum.”
Carter added he doesn’t have any other data center-related legislation in the works, but if this ordinance passes, he would look to amend it if the County experiences problems.
