The city of Elkhart is considering a moratorium on data centers while it studies their impacts and develops standards for their approval.
It might seem like there isn’t enough room in the city for hyperscale data centers, but common council member Aaron Mishler notes there could be room for smaller ones, or developers could buy existing factory buildings, demolish them and build large data centers there.
On Monday the council will hear first reading of an ordinance offered by Mayor Rod Roberson that calls for a temporary moratorium, or pause, on any new applications filed with the city to build data centers or battery energy storage systems.
The bill gives staff 60 days to develop standards for everything from electrical grid capacity and water impacts to fire and traffic safety around data centers.
It calls for a longer pause, 180 days, until the council can include those standards in a new Unified Development Ordinance.
Mishler, also a city plan commission member, says without such standards, a developer could launch a data center however it wants as long as that land is zoned industrial.
