Findlay's data center rules near completion

FINDLAY — Findlay's proposed data center zoning regulations may be nearing completion as city officials continue refining rules for the I-3 Industrial District. Findlay City Council's Planning & Zoning Committee is expected to review the latest version at a meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday at the Findlay Municipal Building, 318 Dorney Plaza. All committee meetings are open to the public and the meeting will be livestreamed on the city's YouTube channel: Findlay Ohio. The committee is chaired by Councilwoman Heather Kensinger, R-at-large, and includes council members Nichole Coleman, R-1; Kevin Cullen, I-5; Dan DeLong, R-7; and Brad Wagner, R-at-large. The city remains under a moratorium on data centers through April, or until council approves zoning. Both the City Planning Commission and the committee advanced new recommendations earlier this month. Matt Cordonnier, director of the Hancock Regional Planning Commission, said the city has worked on the regulations since spring and incorporated several resident suggestions into successive drafts. New recommendations from the Planning Commission are aimed at strengthening noise protections, increasing transparency and expanding compliance monitoring. Among the changes are expanded noise-testing requirements that would allow sound measurements at homes separated from a data center by streets or other parcels, rather than limiting testing to immediately adjacent properties. Additional language would require evaluation of low-frequency and tonal noise, including humming, droning and other mechanical sounds that residents near data centers in other communities have cited as concerns. The proposal also would require annual compliance reports documenting electricity use, water use, wastewater discharges, generator operations and compliance with mitigation measures. Project applications, technical studies, approved site plans and compliance reports would be posted on a publicly accessible city webpage. Earlier this month, the Planning & Zoning Committee endorsed two additional changes. Committee members voted to recommend a decommissioning requirement and a rule that would require emergency backup generators to be enclosed within buildings. DeLong also continued to argue that the city should delay adopting the regulations while the moratorium remains in effect to allow for additional changes as more information becomes known.