The ordinance was passed unanimously at the regular Tuesday morning meeting, Aug. 25.
It establishes the Data Center Research Committee, and places a strategic pause on data center permits within the county through 2026.
This has occurred amid other counties pursuing their own remedies — such as Warrick passing something similar to the one in Vanderburgh County, and Posey County working through a rule to regulate the projects.
Commission President Justin Elpers explained why they'll have 13 members for the research committee.
“There might be a time or two where somebody may have to couldn't attend because of family, or maybe they're sick, or so forth,” Elpers said. “So if you have 13, a couple people drop off here or there at a meeting. I think you could have a solid nine to 10 members at every meeting.”
There also happen to be 13 seats at the municipal meeting room at the Civic Center.
The commission ultimately chose the members across several areas of backgrounds or expertise — such as Evansville Climate Collaborative Director Lauren Lynch.
She wants to look into communities with new data center projects — in the works or completed.
“Talk with them about successes and failures, what they put into their ordinances and what they wish they would have put into their ordinances. So yeah, I think that we need to study as a community, not only just locally but regionally and across the Midwest, to see what everyone's doing, so that we can compare notes and learn from each other.”
She was suggested by Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry as a representative for the city on the committee.
Aside from environmental knowledge, they also included expertise in public safety and emergency management, noise and acoustics, land use — planning and zoning.
Others areas include agriculture, civil engineering, community and neighborhood representation, environmental science and natural resources, tech expertise and water infrastructure.
Several meetings are planned already. The Kickoff meeting is September second.
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