Cleveland’s proposed Data Center moratorium in a race against time, technology – NEOtrans

Source Domain: neo-trans.blog

As more companies embrace artificial intelligence to automate more jobs, more data centers will appear around the world. The question Cleveland is grappling with as more data center development plans arrive here is to how to effectively regulate them (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Moratorium faces speed bumps despite urgency

It’s a race against time between the City of Cleveland and developers seeking to construct new data centers. On one side is the city which has an outdated zoning code it has been wanting to update for years, with data centers being the latest new land use to add to the mix.

On the other side are developers seeking to add more data storage and computing capacity. Their goal is to accommodate data servers for everything from video gaming, to small businesses hosting Web sites and e-commerce to Fortune 500 companies trying to replace thousands of workers by automating entire departments.

Cleveland officials are working to buy themselves some time in reviewing and updating its zoning code by enacting into law a moratorium on permitting the establishment of new data centers. But it remains to seen whether the moratorium can be passed before new projects get approved under the city’s old zoning code.

As proposed, the legislation will be “Declaring a moratorium on the review and issuance of zoning permits, certificates of occupancy, and other license or permit applications, including licenses or permits issued by the Department of Public Utilities, for data centers in the City of Cleveland.”

“This council has reasonable concerns that new data centers will have an adverse effect by shifting costs to utility consumers and that the potential economic benefits of data centers are outweighed by adverse consequences, including harmful environmental impacts,” the moratorium legislation states.