Wilson County leaders look to regulate data center developments 

WILSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Wilson County leaders are looking to introduce guardrails on data centers during a meeting Monday night.

The commissioner that introduced the idea said they are looking to mirror an ordinance that passed about an hour north in Warren County, Kentucky.  

“We have thought about it significantly, and that’s why today is about protection,” said Warren County Judge/Executive Doug Gorman during a Warren Fiscal Court meeting on June 11.

Where to put data centers has become a global conservation, including here in Middle Tennessee.

“Over the past several weeks, I’ve watched Metro Council deal with the potential of a large data center next to the Nashville Zoo. I want to avoid being in that situation in Wilson County,” District 18 Commissioner Lauren Breeze said during a commissioner meeting last week.

Breeze said there are currently no requirements when and if a data center wants to move to town. So, she is working on a zoning amendment for data centers that mirror regulations that were crafted just an hour north.

“Bowling Green and Warren County, Kentucky, will have the gold standard of ordinances for data centers in America,” Gorman said. 

Planning leaders in Warren County and Bowling Green spent eight months drafting an ordinance that they hope will protect their community from potential data center developments.  

“Everyone and their brother are calling and asking what this ordinance says,” Gorman added.

The ordinance has strict standards on location, design, utility protections and even decommissioning.

For example, the data centers would need to be set back 1,500 feet from homes, schools, and hospitals, as well as look discrete—like an office building. It’s language Wilson County is looking to mirror.  

“In my neck of the woods, we have a lot of warehouse and really big warehouses that honestly could be turned into one,” District 11 Commissioner John Gentry said. 

While some communities, like Cedar Hill, passed moratoriums, which put a pause on data centers, the Wilson County attorney said a moratorium might not hold up in court. However, in Warren County, Kentucky, leaders said their regulations will legally protect them.

“What we are doing is making sure to tighten the rules up enough so when they want to look at us and have to jump through seventeen thousand hoops to get done what they want done, chances are they will move on to somebody else,” another leaders expressed during the Warren County meeting.

The Warren County zoning ordinance will go through a second reading.   

Meanwhile, the Wilson County Planning and Zoning Committee will meet at 5 p.m. on Monday, June 22. Data center regulations, as well as a moratorium, will be discussed during the meeting.