Akron is formulating a plan to shield residents from potential ill effects of data centers.
Planning Director Kyle Julien said nothing currently governs how, or which, data centers may operate in Akron, so the administration is crafting an ordinance that allows the city to evaluate proposed data centers and their possible impact on the community.
“We’re responding to the concerns that we’ve heard in the community,” Julien said, including worries about data centers’ impact on the local electric grid, heavy water consumption, the effect on the sanitary sewer system and noise pollution affecting residents.
The ordinance, he said, would add data centers to the zoning code as a specific land use requiring conditional use approval, and require developers to provide information addressing those community concerns.
“We feel that going through this conditional use (process) really allows us to evaluate each project on its own merits,” said deputy service director Jeff Bronowski said. “There’s certainly a whole host of negative aspects with regards to data centers, but there’s certainly positives that come with them as well.”
He listed job creation, utility infrastructure investments and economic development benefits as upsides.
“That’s the point of doing this essential detailed dive into every one of the proposals,” Bronowski said, “to determine if this is an acceptable option for Akron or not.” It’s better for Akron than a moratorium, he said, which would effectively be a “closed” sign posted at the city limits.
Akron’s Planning Commission will consider the zoning change as part of its July 10 agenda. Julien said he’ll likely ask the commission to vote on the matter at that meeting. After the commission makes its recommendation, the proposal goes to Akron City Council, which will vote on whether to enact the change.
That’s not the end of it.
Julien said the administration is committed to studying the data center question over the next four to six months with an eye toward revising the ordinance using input from community stakeholders, including Akron’s youth.
Environmental Services Manager Emily Collins said youth feedback is important in part because they’re poised to inherit the city.
“Not only that,” Collins said, “they’re also kind of the consumers of the technology that’s contributing to these things.”
Data centers range in size, from facilities less than 20,000 square feet surviving off a standard power supply to a 500,000-square-foot operation that aggressively devours electricity, “and then there’s every step in between,” Julien said. The revised ordinance will allow the city to regulate all the different types of data centers, he said.
“As we gather more information then we can really hone in on a revision to this ordinance that allows us to make better distinctions and more transparent distinctions between the scale of data center development,” Julien said.
Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreider@Gannett.com or 330-541-9413.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron officials puzzle over how to map out data centers’ future here
Reporting by Derek Kreider, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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By Derek Kreider, Akron Beacon Journal | USA TODAY Network
