MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WGNS) - Rutherford County leaders are stepping in to regulate commercial data centers before developers expand projects into rural communities.
The Rutherford County Public Works Committee voted unanimously Tuesday night to recommend a six-month moratorium on new data centers in unincorporated parts of the county...
Committee Chairman Anthony Johnson called for the vote, which passed with all members in favor. The proposed pause remains contingent on the county legal department determining whether local government holds the legal authority to enforce it.
Rutherford County Planning Director Doug Demosi spoke to the Public Works Committee Tuesday after delivering a similar presentation to the Property Management Committee recently on the subject. Demosi confirmed his office has not received inquiries or applications from developers looking to build data centers in rural areas. While smaller facilities operate inside Murfreesboro city limits, unincorporated Rutherford County currently lacks specific zoning regulations for data centers.
Under current standards, any proposed facility must complete a full planned development process. That process requires pre-application meetings, neighborhood sessions, and public hearings before both the Rutherford County Regional Planning Commission and the Board of Commissioners.
Planning officials have started preliminary discussions with Consolidated Utility District (CUD), Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to evaluate water availability and power grid capacity. MTE indicated that power demands exceeding a specific wattage threshold require preliminary approval from TVA before reaching local distributors.
Public comments at recent committee meetings prompted commissioners to call for immediate action rather than waiting for initial applications to arrive. Commissioner Robert Peay was among those urging planners to establish clear guidelines quickly...
The full Rutherford County Commission will consider the proposed moratorium at its meeting on August 26th. Planning officials plan to present a draft regulatory framework to the committee at their September meeting.
