The Effingham City Council passed a temporary moratorium earlier this week for the acceptance of applications, permitting and permit approval for cryptocurrency mines, data centers and facilities of similar use within corporate city limits and extraterritorial limits.
The 12-month hold allows city officials the necessary time to adopt rules, procedures and regulations for these facilities. It also grants them time to see what the state government might do to regulate these facilities.
In March 2024, the city council passed an ordinance that had regulations on cryptocurrency mines and data centers. But since then, it’s been difficult for the city to keep up with the ever-changing technology.
Prior regulations have defined data centers and cryptocurrency, so city officials would reference those definitions rather than adding them to this ordinance.
“It is a recommendation that we proceed to a moratorium to allow us to properly evaluate before we put in place any new regulations with regard to these types of uses,” said City Attorney Tracy Willenborg.
The moratorium is not applicable to any complete permit petitions that were submitted to the city before June 2, such as the approved data center located at 15244 County Road 1700 North currently under construction. This data center will be powered by a 4.63-acre solar array system, with any excess power transferring to the grid, according to City Planner Greg Koester. It does not use water for cooling.
The moratorium does not specifically reference artificial intelligence processing centers because the city already has a prohibition in place for them.
“If some other type of use that is comparable that you’re concerned with wants to look about siting within the corporate limits or extraterritorial limits, if it’s not currently an allowed use – a defined use – it would be prohibited anyway until you made a regulation for it,” said Willenborg.
Altamont resident Nicholas Tkachuck spoke in-favor of the moratorium, believing it’s important to regulate data centers. Data centers in Effingham could cause extra pollution in surrounding communities, consume farmland and put a massive strain on resources, such as water and electricity, he said.
“I think it’s incredibly important that we make sure that these data centers don’t spiral out of control. We know for a fact that they cause massive strain on water and energy,” said Tkachuck. “I think it’s incredibly important that this gets accepted … accepting something like this could lead to less data center development, maybe county-wide, perhaps even a moratorium countywide.”
When the ordinance passed on Tuesday, it took effect immediately.
The next city council meeting is scheduled for June 16 at 5 p.m.