The Valparaiso City Council voted 6 to 1 Monday evening on first reading to amend a proposed ordinance for a moratorium on data centers to remove the original two-year end date and also voted unanimously to direct the Plan Commission to hold a public hearing on the matter and issue a recommendation.
Councilman Peter Anderson, R-5th, voted against removing the end date from the proposed moratorium. “The whole idea behind a moratorium is that it’s temporary. It requires an end date,” he said.
Upon questioning from the council, Council Attorney Mark Worthley said the council could make the moratorium indefinite, but “at that point it wouldn’t be a moratorium, it would be a ban.”
Council President Ellen Kapitan, D-At-Large, explained that she brought the issue of zoning regulations regarding data centers up to the Plan Commission in May.
She said the Plan Commission decided to explore the issue with a subject matter expert who was supposed to address the Plan Commission at a special meeting Tuesday, but just hours before the start of the city council meeting, she was told the expert was unavailable and the special meeting was cancelled.
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Kapitan said the goal was to give the city time to become educated on the fast-moving industry “before feeling we need to rush any regulations.”
It was Council Member Robert Cotton’s idea to remove the deadline from the moratorium.
“It takes the clock out of it,” said Cotton, D-2nd. “It puts all of the effort and the onus on solid debate.”
Council Vice President Emilie Hunt, D-At-Large, said she would absolutely support a moratorium with or without an end date. She said the industry is expanding “faster than many governments can keep up with.”
Mayor Jon Costas said ultimately, the regulation of data centers will fall to the next city council.
“I think taking the time to think broadly about this issue and to see how it comports with the development of our comprehensive plan — I think it’s a good time to pause and say, ‘How does it fit within that?’ — makes sense,” he said.
He suggested the council stick with the two-year deadline on the moratorium and said typically, prohibiting a use requires a lot of supportive findings of fact.
Kapitan said it would be important to differentiate in any future regulations between small, local internet providers and data centers, and Hunt told the group that City Attorney Joe Svetanoff was looking into the language of what a complete ban on data centers would look like.
The Plan Commission will address the issue, including a public hearing, at its August 4 meeting and provide a recommendation to the City Council before its August 10 meeting, when it can hold a second reading and vote on the matter.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.