Jackson County approved a 12-month moratorium on data centers with an additional infrastructure study.
Commissioner Bryan Lee said the county needs to pause development to ensure that any future data center projects align with the best interests of the community. Lee said the current regulatory environment makes a moratorium one of the only available options for the county to properly assess whether these facilities are beneficial or harmful.
“Right now the way our setup is, it’s one of our only options,” Lee said. “And it puts a pause on things and lets us really look at it to see if they’re good or bad, you know, we don’t know.”
Lee said the moratorium is scheduled to last for one year but includes a provision for a six-month extension if more time is required. Lee said the total duration of the pause will sunset after a maximum of 18 months.
“Jackson County’s a beautiful place and we don’t want obviously something that’s going to impact tourism or something and them having to look at a giant data center or so, you know, just something to, making sure that this is something that would be a benefit to our county,” Lee said.
Lee said the county intends to form a specialized study committee to conduct due diligence on the industry. Lee said the commission wants to involve representatives from Upper Cumberland Electric, Twin Lakes, the local water department, and Gainesboro.
“They have information that we don’t have, especially the electric companies and the water department,” Lee said. “And so they can kind of tell us what we can support and what we can’t. And then we can look at what’s out there.”
Lee said the county is closely monitoring public sentiment and noted that a recent poll indicated approximately 80 percent of the country opposes data centers. Lee said while the county recognizes that artificial intelligence technology is a permanent fixture, officials must remain respectful to the citizens during the evaluation process.
“Of course, AI is here and it’s not going anywhere,” Lee said. “And so, you know, we just want to do our due diligence and be respectful to our citizens and study it.”