Garfield Township Issues Moratorium on Data Centers

Garfield Township trustees voted unanimously Tuesday to impose a one-year moratorium on data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities. The move is intended to give township leaders time to update Garfield’s zoning ordinance to better address such projects. The moratorium means a small-scale data center proposed on Sybrandt Road near the Sara Lee plant will be put on hold for at least 12 months.

The data center moratorium is the first one issued under new rules recently approved by trustees, who created a detailed process for enacting such temporary bans. Under the policy, moratoriums can be issued when a land use could “adversely affect the health, safety, or welfare of township residents or property.” Township Supervisor Joe McManus explained Tuesday that it was important for Garfield Township to establish a moratorium process and not just issue one “haphazardly” to ensure it could stand up to a legal challenge.

“There are municipalities...that did knee-jerk moratoriums and are being challenged and losing in court because they didn't go through the process that we went through,” he said. McManus also pointed out that Garfield can’t just ban data centers outright. Communities typically can’t flatly prohibit a land use, especially if it could be argued in court there’s a need for that use. However, communities do have the power to regulate data centers.

That includes determining where they’re allowed, what type of approval process they must go through, and how any negative impacts will be mitigated. In recommending the data center moratorium to trustees, planning commissioners cited several issues they believed should be addressed in the coming months. Those include potentially limiting data centers to specific industrial zones and changing them from a use by right to a special use permit – a more intensive approval process.

Planning commissioners also suggested updating the township’s definition of data centers. The current definition reads: “A facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems.” In an era of projects ranging from small-scale operations like the TCAPS Sabin Data Center on Cass Road to hyperscale campuses planned downstate and elsewhere, the zoning definition “needs to be updated and potentially split into multiple definitions to more accurately reflect the scale and impact of different types of data centers,” according to a staff memo.

Township officials could also consider numerous other impacts when updating the zoning ordinance. Many of those impacts were cited by residents as concerns during voluminous public comment and emails to the board in recent weeks. They include water usage and quality, energy usage, noise, unrealistic economic development promises, and infrastructure strain. “We all live here, we all care about what goes on here,” McManus said Tuesday, discussing the potential impacts of such projects. Deputy Planning Director Stephen Hannon previously said that “even the small data centers still have impacts,” making their careful regulation crucial.

While trustees approved a one-year moratorium, Garfield’s policy allows that to be extended an additional six months if more time is needed to finish the zoning update. That could mean a potential 18-month freeze on any data center or cryptocurrency mining projects. One project that will be impacted by the temporary ban is a proposed small-scale data center from Illinois-based Cervenka Development Partners on Sybrandt Road off Cass near the Sara Lee plant.

The company recently submitted an official site plan application for that project to the township. However, staff said it was incomplete and couldn’t be considered until all required documents were submitted. That review did not take place before the moratorium was enacted, so the project is now on hold. Prior to Tuesday’s meeting, developer Tom Cervenka shared documents with The Ticker outlining the company’s plans.

The documents, which were also sent to township trustees, describe the project as a “high-reliability digital infrastructure facility” that would adaptively reuse an existing industrial building (pictured). A closed-loop system for cooling would mean “minimal municipal water demand,” the company wrote. Cervenka Development Partners emphasized it was not building a hyperscale development, planned to use existing utilities and roads, and would install sound and landscaping screening.

“We understand why the community wants to proceed cautiously, and we want to approach this project as a responsible future neighbor, not as a developer seeking to force a standardized data center project into the township without regard for its surroundings,” Cervenka wrote to township officials. “We have designed the concept around the characteristics of this specific property, its surrounding uses, and the concerns expressed by the community, including noise, water use, traffic, appearance, and compatibility with nearby residences…we recognize that trust must be earned through transparency, responsiveness, and follow-through.”

Cervenka did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday on whether the firm will now abandon the project or wait to resubmit it when the moratorium is lifted. However, in previous emails he said he was following the moratorium discussions and welcomed “the opportunity to work constructively with the township and its residents as the board considers the moratorium and any future ordinance standards.”

McManus said at Tuesday’s meeting that he was pleased township officials were aligned with the “overwhelming” consensus of residents that data centers need to be addressed. “They came out in great numbers and showed that the path the planning commission and town board took was the right path and what the community wanted,” he said.