Future Akron data centers may soon be required to go through a new review process before they are built — a process that will consider Akron residents who live in proximity to the centers.
The revised process will allow city officials to evaluate proposals for new data centers, consider where they should be located and create a structured and transparent process, said Kyle Julien, the city’s planning director.
The Akron Planning Commission will consider creating a zoning ordinance at its July 10 meeting that would make data centers a city land use and require new centers on city land to have conditional-use approval before they are built, according to a June 25 press release from the city.
Understand more about data centers: See where seven data centers are currently located in Summit County, along with what’s happening with data centers in the City of Cleveland.
The Planning Commission would review each new data center proposal to make recommendations and suggestions of what conditions the center should adhere to, then forward the application to Akron City Council to consider. Council would also be required to schedule public hearings about the proposal, in order to hear from supporters and detractors before voting.
“Our zoning code, as it sits today, doesn’t have an explicit definition of a data center,” Julien said. “Therefore, we don’t have rules and regulations that are calibrated to the particular challenges that they present.
“That’s something that we feel like we need to change in order to fulfill our obligation to protect our residents, ensure that land use is handled properly across the city.”
The only restrictions on data centers is that they be located in industrial areas of Akron, with no additional review. There are currently at least seven data centers in Summit County.
“Our zoning code was written before facilities like modern data centers became a significant planning consideration,” Mayor Shammas Malik said in the release. “This proposal creates a thoughtful, transparent process that allows us to evaluate each project on its merits, engage the public, and ensure we’re protecting community interests while providing clarity and predictability for applicants.”
Conditional-use approval requirement for Akron data centers
Under the proposed review, data centers would be required to provide the following information to city staff, the Planning Commission, City Council and the public:
- Expected electricity demand
- Projected water use and wastewater discharge
- Backup power systems
- Projected noise levels
The information currently required includes:
- Sites plans
- Landscaping plans
- Building elevations
The City of Akron would also want to know, Julien said, if there would be any impact on nearby residences, schools or daycare centers.
The new requirements would not apply to any data centers looking to expand current facilities.
“The data centers are really new and they could be or bring significant disruptions,” Julien said. “So without a specific process in place to evaluate a potential data center, we don’t really have a way to understand what those disruptions are.”
Review process to address data center concerns from residents
Ohio residents have expressed concerns with data centers because of environmental issues like fossil fuels consumption, energy use and water system impact.
The size and type of the data center, which typically ranges from 20,000 to 500,000 square feet, matters. The city’s proposed review process for new data centers could help evaluate and solve concerns that the community has.
An example would include noise projections from equipment — after going through a new data center’s projected noise levels in its proposal, the City of Akron could determine the developers need to add more sound dampening measures or that it’s too close to a residential area, Julien said.
“What we eventually want to do is just be more prescriptive about this,” he said. “These [data centers] should be so many feet away from residential areas.”
Introducing the legislation for the new review process is phase one of the effort to manage future data centers by the city. Phase two is research that includes:
- The continued study of data centers themselves.
- Revisions to become more explicit in the process requirements.
- Revisions to account for the variety of data center sizing.
“We want to be clear about that but that’s where we need to do some more study about what that might mean,” Julien said, “to be able to distinguish between the different scales of data centers.”
