2,080 acres rezoned for data center development plan in Mason County
More than 2,000 acres of land in Kentucky’s Mason County are now ripe for a data center development.
Economic development leaders and local elected officials in Maysville have been in talks with an unnamed company to build a data center in the northeastern county and last week, approved the next step.
At its May 22 meeting, the Mason County Fiscal Court had a second reading of an ordinance concerning an application for a data center development.
Subsequently, the Mason County Joint Planning Commission recommended the rezoning of 28 properties, roughly 2,080 acres, related to the development.
The land — which is being amended from agricultural to rural industrial — is equivalent to approximately 1,575 football fields.
Last fall, Maysville-Mason County Industrial Development Authority Economic Development Director Tyler McHugh began dispelling rumors about the project and making an attempt to ease residents’ fears.
“We are working with a Fortune 100 technology company that develops, owns and operates large-scale technology campuses worldwide,” he told the fiscal court Aug. 13.
The development plan included a campus with several single-story data center buildings, some office space and enough parking to support employees at both.
The operator of the data centers will, McHugh said, be responsible for mitigating sound produced by the site and said it would pay for the necessary road, sewer, water and electricity infrastructure.
Data centers are the increasingly popular facilities that house computer servers and networking equipment. They allow for more cloud computing, database hosting and can train and operate various models of artificial intelligence.
Last year, the Kentucky General Assembly said tax incentives were OK for some data center projects, which has made the commonwealth even more attractive than before for their development. The state’s first data center is being built in South Louisville though there are a number of other active proposals.
Legislation proposed this session that would have protected ratepayers against subsidizing multi-million dollar energy infrastructure upgrades designed to lure and support tech companies died.
Before and since the August meeting in Maysville, residents have expressed concern over the undisclosed name of the developer and are worried about energy use and pollution impacting their community negatively.
The process has been done largely behind closed doors to ensure the deal goes through. Maysville and Mason County officials are working under agreements made with the data center operator to not identify the parties until it is final.
A group called We Are Mason County that formed in opposition to the development plan has filed legal action against the county’s planning commission, alleging the secretive negotiations prevented appropriate auditing and that there’s nothing in the county’s zoning plan that specifies anything related to data centers.
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