Data centers and emerging technology projects are permitted only as limited uses in the Service/Industrial Zoning District.

Data centers and emerging technology projects are classified as large-scale projects and must be reviewed by the Planning Commission and approved by County Council.

Construction, expansion, modification, or operation requires an approved site plan and supporting documents; these approvals must occur before land disturbance or issuance of a building permit.

The site plan must document buildings, equipment, generators, cooling systems, substations, fuel storage, utilities, setbacks, buffers, water and wastewater demand, power and fuel demand, noise and emissions controls, building height, and emergency access.

Applications must undergo review by the Zoning Officer and Planning Commission, followed by County Council approval before the project may proceed. The Council may hold a properly noticed public hearing and impose additional project-specific requirements.

The Planning Commission has 30 days to submit its recommendation; failure to do so is deemed a recommendation of approval, but County Council approval is still required.

The reviewing authority may deny, condition, phase, or otherwise restrict a project that does not demonstrate compliance or adequately mitigate identified impacts; the ordinance does not guarantee approval.

Principal buildings must be at least 300 feet from exterior property lines and 500 feet from specified sensitive uses, including residences, schools, churches, parks, public facilities, lakefront residential areas, and occupied commercial buildings.

Cooling equipment, generators, turbines, transformers, substations, switchyards, fuel storage, battery storage, and other mechanical equipment must be at least 500 feet from exterior property lines and 750 feet from the specified sensitive uses.

Project improvements must be at least 200 feet from lakes, rivers, perennial streams, drinking-water sources, and protected environmental areas, unless a greater setback is required by law.

Buildings may not exceed 75 feet in height unless County Council approves a greater height after Planning Commission review.

A vegetative buffer of at least 150 feet is required around the project perimeter, increasing to 200 feet next to residential uses or zoning, parks, schools, churches, public facilities, scenic corridors, lakefront areas, or occupied commercial uses.

Exterior lighting must be fully shielded and directed downward, with project illumination limited to 0.1 foot-candle at property lines adjoining specified sensitive areas and 0.5 foot-candle at other exterior property lines.

Projects requesting or requiring more than 1,000,000 gallons per day of average water use require Planning Commission review and County Council approval.

Projects must use specified water-efficient cooling technologies, and open-loop evaporative cooling is prohibited unless supported by a Water Impact Report and approved by the Zoning Officer, County Administrator, Planning Commission, and County Council after required findings.

Noise may not exceed 55 dBA at the receiving property line of specified sensitive uses or public roads, and low-frequency, tonal, impulsive, recurring, or mechanical-hum noise may not exceed ambient conditions by more than 7 dBC.

Generator testing is limited to Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., excluding County holidays, unless emergency operation is required.

Projects with backup generation, on-site generation, fuel storage, turbines, or combustion equipment must submit a Generator and Emissions Plan and comply with federal and state air-quality requirements.

Combustion equipment may not produce visible smoke, soot, odor, haze, particulate matter, or other visible emissions beyond the project boundary, except for limited periods associated with startup, shutdown, testing, or permitted emergency operation.

Behind-the-meter natural-gas turbines must be kept away from adjacent residentially zoned or ground-floor residential property, located toward the site or building interior where practical, and kept outside required buffers and building setbacks.

Applicants must provide a security plan showing appropriate fencing, gates, and access controls.

The applicant must pay all infrastructure and related project costs, including water, sewer, electricity, gas, roads, stormwater, fire protection, emergency services, studies, permitting, construction, maintenance, mitigation, and legal review; costs may not be shifted to existing or other utility customers.

Applicants must submit a decommissioning plan covering removal of equipment and restoration of the property, and electronic components must be recycled through a certified e-waste facility.

A project is deemed abandoned after 12 consecutive months without operation or when the County determines it is no longer used for its approved purpose; after that determination, the permit holder has six months to complete decommissioning.

Before a certificate of occupancy, the owner must provide financial security sufficient to cover decommissioning, disposal, remediation, and restoration costs, plus at least a 20 percent contingency; the County may require updated estimates and adjust the security every five years.

Before final approval, applicants must provide professional noise, water and wastewater, electrical and generation, and environmental and stormwater studies; County Council may not take final action until the required studies are submitted and reviewed.

Fuels, oils, coolants, transformer fluids, battery materials, wastewater, and other regulated materials must be properly stored, contained, treated, discharged, transported, and disposed of, with required spill-prevention and secondary-containment systems installed before operation.

Reportable spills, releases, or discharges and formal state or federal environmental notices or enforcement actions must be reported to the Zoning Officer, generally within 24 hours for reportable releases.

Before full operations and final certificate of occupancy, the owner must provide required testing, inspections, certifications, environmental permits, water and wastewater capacity documentation, and proof of compliance with noise, generation, setbacks, buffers, lighting, stormwater, and regulated-fluid requirements.

The owner or operator must annually certify compliance with approved water demand, generation capacity, noise limits, and other operating limits, and must conduct professional noise testing at least every three years.

Violations can require corrective action and may result in reduction, modification, or suspension of equipment or operations, stop orders, withholding of permits or approvals, injunctive relief, and other legal remedies; continuing violations may be treated as separate violations for each day.

Any material change requires review by the Zoning Officer, County Administrator, and Planning Commission and approval by County Council. Material changes include expansion beyond the approved envelope, reduced setbacks or buffers, new or materially modified environmental permits, increased generation or grid capacity, increased maximum daily water demand, or increased natural-gas or biofuel demand.

Subsequent phases or modifications that remain within the approved plan must still be reviewed by the Zoning Officer and approved by the County Administrator, with referral to the Planning Commission and County Council possible.

The first reading invokes the Pending Ordinance Doctrine, allowing the pending zoning restrictions to affect consideration of inconsistent development approvals while the ordinance is pending.

Data centers and emerging technology projects are permitted as limited uses in the Service/Industrial Zoning District, subject to the ordinance’s standards and other applicable zoning requirements.

If the Planning Commission does not submit its recommendation within 30 days after receiving a project submission, the ordinance treats that failure as a recommendation for approval. County Council approval is still required.

After an approved plan, later phases and modifications that remain within the approved limits for power generation, water use, noise, setbacks, buffers, and environmental performance may be reviewed by the Zoning Officer and approved by the County Administrator rather than undergoing a new full approval process. The Administrator may refer changes to the Planning Commission and County Council.

Minor changes within an approved plan are not treated as material changes, and the Zoning Officer—advised and consented to by the County Administrator—determines whether a proposed change is minor or material.

The ordinance permits utility, roadway, drainage, and infrastructure crossings through lakes, rivers, perennial streams, drinking-water sources, and protected environmental areas when authorized by the applicable regulatory agencies.

Existing on-site trees may be credited toward required vegetative buffers if the County Administrator determines that the vegetation achieves the buffer requirements’ purposes.

Buildings may exceed the otherwise applicable 75-foot height limit if County Council approves the additional height after Planning Commission review.

The first reading of the ordinance invokes the Pending Ordinance Doctrine, providing the measure’s stated protection associated with pending zoning regulations.

A proposed nine-month moratorium would have temporarily barred applications for data centers in McCormick County; the County Council rejected it on first reading.

The data-center ordinance restricts where data centers and emerging-technology projects may be located.

The ordinance regulates data-center water use.

The ordinance imposes requirements concerning power generation and natural-gas use.

The ordinance establishes noise-control requirements for data centers.

The ordinance includes environmental-protection requirements.

The ordinance requires setbacks and buffer areas for data-center development.

The ordinance addresses responsibility for data-center infrastructure costs, creating potential additional costs for developers or operators.

The ordinance includes requirements related to emergency services.

The ordinance requires technical studies in connection with data-center projects.

The ordinance provides for monitoring of data-center activities.

The ordinance requires continuing compliance with its requirements after development or operation begins.