In unincorporated Madison County, a temporary moratorium bars accepting, reviewing, processing, or approving applications for constructing, expanding, continuing, or operating a Data Center Facility, including land-use changes, rezonings, conditional uses, development permits, site plans, building permits, and other approvals.

The moratorium applies to applications that were pending before the ordinance took effect as well as new applications.

The moratorium remains in effect through June 15, 2027, and may be extended for successive periods of up to 90 days if the Board makes specified findings about continuing circumstances, study and corrective-legislation progress, and the need for additional time.

The moratorium applies to a Data Center Facility, generally defined as a data center that is also a Large Load Customer with an anticipated monthly peak load of at least 50 megawatts at one location.

The Board may grant a site-specific exception to the moratorium only upon substantial competent evidence that the facility could otherwise be lawfully permitted and that denial would cause extraordinary hardship.

An extraordinary-hardship exception requires a nonrefundable $350 fee, written supporting facts, written property-owner consent when applicable, notice published at least 10 days before the hearing, and a public hearing before the Board.

Applicants seeking county permits or other approvals must disclose in writing any intent to establish or site a Data Center Facility; failure to disclose may result in denial of a pending application or enforcement against an approval already issued.

Violations may lead to permit suspension or revocation, code-enforcement or court proceedings, civil penalties, and criminal punishment of up to a $500 fine, 60 days in county jail, or both.

A public utility's tariff for a Large Load Customer must require the customer to bear its full cost of service, including connection, transmission, generation, infrastructure, operations, and maintenance costs, without shifting those costs or nonpayment risk to other ratepayers.

Utilities may impose additional financial or contractual requirements on Large Load Customers, including infrastructure contributions, demand or incremental-generation charges, financial guarantees, minimum load factors, take-or-pay obligations, minimum service periods, and early-termination or other contract fees.

A customer may not divide electrical demand at one location among multiple smaller connections to avoid the Large Load Customer classification.

Utilities may curtail or interrupt service to a Large Load Customer for grid stability, outage prevention, public safety, emergencies, or other exceptional circumstances, and tariffs, contracts, and policies may not prevent such curtailment.

Tariffs must be designed to prevent electric service to a Large Load Customer that is a foreign entity, and a public utility may not knowingly provide that service.

Each public utility must file a tariff complying with the Large Load Customer requirements for commission approval by October 1, 2026.

A water-management district or the Department of Environmental Protection may not issue a water-allocation permit for a large-scale data center if the proposed use would harm area water resources or violate applicable zoning regulations or the comprehensive plan.

A large-scale data center may obtain a water-allocation permit only after establishing that the proposed use is reasonable-beneficial, will not interfere with existing legal water uses, and is consistent with the public interest.

Water authorities must require reclaimed water instead of some or all proposed surface-water or groundwater use when specified conditions regarding availability, capacity, quality, access, environmental and economic feasibility, technical feasibility, and discharge-permit compatibility are satisfied.

A large-scale data center seeking an average water allocation of at least 100,000 gallons per day must identify all water sources, uses, and losses and submit a conservation plan addressing cooling-water recycling, leak detection and repair, water-efficient fixtures, and employee conservation education.

A water-permit application for a large-scale data center may not be approved without a hearing, and a modification involving such a facility must be processed under the same requirements as an initial permit application.

A water-management district or the Department of Environmental Protection must issue a water-allocation permit to a large-scale data center if the applicant shows that the proposed use is reasonable-beneficial, will not interfere with existing legal water uses, and is consistent with the public interest. The permit remains subject to zoning, comprehensive-plan, and water-resource restrictions.

Large-scale data centers may use reclaimed water instead of some or all proposed surface water or groundwater when a suitable permitted supply and distribution infrastructure are available, the applicant can access it, and the use is environmentally, economically, and technically feasible without conflicting with discharge-permit requirements.

Public-utility tariffs for large-load customers may require contributions toward construction or other infrastructure investments and may allow some or all of those contributions to be returned to the customer over time. This requires commission approval, and the customer must bear its full cost of service.

Information about a private entity's plans or interest in locating, relocating, or expanding a data center may remain confidential and exempt from public-records disclosure for up to 12 months or until otherwise disclosed.

A large-load customer may not be treated as an electric substation under section 163.3208, preventing data centers from being regulated under that specific electric-substation provision.

The moratorium applies only to data centers that are large-load customers with an anticipated monthly peak load of at least 50 megawatts, so smaller data centers are outside its scope.

The moratorium applies only in Madison County's unincorporated area, leaving projects in incorporated municipalities outside this ordinance's moratorium.

The Board may grant an exception for a project that could otherwise be lawfully permitted when the moratorium would cause extraordinary hardship. The applicant must follow the request procedure, pay a nonrefundable $350 fee, provide supporting facts, and obtain Board approval after a noticed public hearing.

Development orders, permits, other approvals, and vested development rights established before the moratorium took effect are not invalidated or suspended, allowing those projects to proceed. Complete applications submitted before the effective date may also continue through review and approval.

Existing, legally operating data centers and their current operations may continue during the moratorium.

The moratorium is temporary and is scheduled to end on June 15, 2027. An extension requires a written resolution and findings that the circumstances continue, reasonable progress is being made toward corrective regulations, and additional time is needed; each extension may not exceed 90 days.