Over 500 residents of Meade County gathered at the Meade County Fairgrounds Tuesday to let their voice be known regarding a rezoning request on property located near the intersection of Highway 313 and 1238 near Garrett.
The Meade County Planning and Zoning Commission held a special called meeting to consider the request. The property owned by the Hobbs Family Trust asked the commission to change the property’s zoning from Agricultural 1 and Residential 1 to Light Industrial for the purpose of locating a data center on the 130 plus acres. All who spoke voiced their opposition to the idea of industrial purposes next to the existing residential neighborhoods and the farm land in the area. They also expressed displeasure with local officials on the short notice and lack of transparency to the community for such a large scale project. Other concerns included quality of life impacts and possible increased utility costs.
After nearly four hours of comments, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted to deny the request based on the action that would create an improper placement in the area. The issue was later reviewed by Meade County Fiscal Court during their regular meeting Tuesday evening with an overflow crowd in attendance. After a couple of hours of comments, magistrates voted in agreement with the planning and zoning commission in denying the request.
The court also voted to place a moratorium on all IT data center infrastructure zoning requests until they can rework the ordinance regulating data centers.
