LOGAN – In near record time during a special meeting on June 30, the Logan Municipal Council considered and approved placing a 180-day moratorium on any proposed development of a data center or a data center power plant within city limits.
Following a public hearing in which only council watchers Gail Hansen and Josh Molitor spoke in favor of the moratorium, the members of the council voted unanimously to approve the six-month delay embodied in Ordinance 26-12.
“Logan City shall not accept, process, approve or issue any application, permit or approval that would authorize the construction or development of a data center or data center power plant,” under the 180-day temporary land use moratorium outlined in Ordinance 26-12.
That intent of that delay, according to Council Chair Mike Johnson, is to give the city’s staff adequate time to develop regulations “ … to protect the public health, safety and welfare of Logan City by preventing potentially incompatible or inadequately regulated development during the period of study and ordinance preparation.”
To obtain the public’s input on those potential development regulations, Johnson explained, the city will host an open house on July 28 during which residents can freely state their opinions on local data centers.
The Logan Municipal Council moved quickly to jump on the growing bandwagon of Utah cities and counties imposing a delay on proposed data center developments.
In late May, commissioners in Iron County imposed a 180-day moratorium on data center requests within their jurisdiction.
In late June, members of the Cache County Council followed suit with a similar preemptive moratorium.
Both those decisions followed the disastrous results of a failure to take such preventive measures in Box Elder County.
In a classic example of closing the barn door after the horses are already loose, the Box Elder County Commission voted unanimously on June 10 to impose a six-month moratorium on data centers and data center power plants.
But that decision was not retroactive, according to County Attorney Stephen R. Hadfield, meaning that the 180-day pause to gather information, conduct studies, review impacts and impose rules will not impact the controversial proposed Stratos Center in the remote Hansel Valley.
Under pressure from the state Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA), that development was green-lighted by Box Elder commissioners on May 4.
Vocal opposition groups sprang up in Box Elder overnight and incumbent commissioners Boyd Bingham and Lee Perry lost their re-election bids in GOP primary balloting on June 23.
At a state level, outraged residents expressed their ire by voting out Senate President Stuart Adams (R-Layton), who chairs the MIDA entity, in primary balloting.
The July 28 open house on data center will be held in the Logan City Hall at 290 North, 100 West in Logan.