Why Should Delaware Care?
For local and county governments, data centers have become a flashpoint that have tested existing regulations, forced moratoriums on development and stirred massive community outrage. In Delaware, one project is expected to use twice the amount of energy consumed by all the state’s homes combined, leading county leaders to upheave some land use rules.
What started as a mild debate over proposed regulations on large-scale data center developments quickly devolved into a bitter back and forth between two New Castle County Council members over who will bear the cost of one specific project: a proposed 6 million-square-foot data center near Delaware City.
Soon after during the Tuesday meeting, the council would hear more than an hour of public comment from concerned residents who overwhelmingly supported the proposed regulations and urged council members to apply them to data centers already in the development pipeline.
In recent months, this is nothing new.
The short-lived argument came as council members held a rare second hearing for the proposal to regulate data centers in northern Delaware. It also was representative of months of frustration from residents, as well as animosity between county leaders, over how the county should respond to a growing artificial intelligence industry with the funds and momentum to match the concerns of local residents and leaders.
Councilman Dave Carter, who introduced the ordinance in August, said he has done what he can to find a compromise, and he hopes to bring the ordinance to the full council for a vote on March 10.
One of the main points of contention on the new bill was the removal of a “pending ordinance doctrine,” which would allow the county to retroactively apply the proposed regulations to data center applications currently in the development pipeline.
After the hearing, Carter said in an interview with Spotlight Delaware that he hopes to bring the ordinance back to the 13-member council without the pending ordinance doctrine, but that if the council wants to vote on an amendment, that would be up to them.
“I think we’re as close as we’re gonna get,” he said.
‘Too personal’
Following a short discussion, two council members representative of the old and new guards in county leadership broke into a brief argument over the retroactive application of rules to planned data centers in the county.
New Castle County Council members Kevin Caneco and Penrose Hollins briefly sparred over both the environmental and economic burdens of proposed data center projects.
Caneco, who represents the district where the proposed Starwood data center would be built, lambasted some retiring council members who months ago derailed the proposed regulation over the retroactivity clause.
Specifically, he homed in on Councilwoman Janet Kilpatrick, who in November worked to defang Carter’s initial ordinance while insisting that the developments would be economic drivers for the county.
“Until you give me a good justification, Councilwoman Kilpatrick, on why you think the pending ordinance doctrine is not applicable outside protecting rich business interest and Starwood Ventures and capital investment, I’ll sit here and I’ll wait for [an] answer,” Caneco said at Tuesday’s hearing.
Hollins, who is also retiring and opposed the regulation late last year, jumped to defend Kilpatrick and said the data center argument has become “too personal.”
“To call someone out like that because they disagree with you, it’s just being disrespectful and being dishonest and not being real,” he said.
The animosity between Hollins and Caneco is the latest episode in a monthslong feud between council members over how they should regulate data center development in the wake of the 6 million-square-foot data center proposal brought by Starwood Digital Ventures.
Starwood, the developer looking to build the Delaware City data center, sustained a massive blow from state officials weeks ago after Delaware environmental regulators ruled the project violated the Coastal Zone Act.
Weeks later, Starwood appealed the state’s decision to the Delaware Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board. Separately, the developer had applied to New Castle County’s Board of Adjustment, seeking a necessary variance to build an electric switch station.
But that hearing, which was scheduled for this Thursday, has since been canceled.
What’s in the new ordinance?
Carter’s amended ordinance included a few concessions on noise regulations, but also clearly outlined how data centers are allowed to use water to cool their supercomputers. The new ordinance also establishes how close developers can build their often loud and bright data centers to residential homes.
In Carter’s new ordinance, he removed specific requirements developers would have to meet in order to dampen persistent noise from data centers. Instead, Carter’s ordinance says developers would have to defer to existing code that says they “shall not generate noise levels that exceed the pre-development noise level.”
He applied the same standard to lighting regulations, deferring back to existing standards for industrial projects.
Additionally, the ordinance says data centers must use closed-loop cooling systems, which are designed to reuse as much water as possible. By mandating these systems, Carter said during the meeting, data centers could reduce their water and energy use.
Another major change in the regulations says data center projects must be at least 1,000 feet from the nearest residential dwelling. But the new code also says that data centers can, if they submit a noise study to the county, build within 500 feet of a home.
Marissa McClenton, a community advocate with the Sierra Club Delaware Chapter, attended Tuesday’s hearing to express her support for the ordinance. She said she was disappointed to see it had been “watered down in order to get the necessary votes.”
She said people support stronger regulations on data centers, and she called it “deeply unfair” for the proposed ordinance, and the rules therein, to not apply to projects already in the planning pipeline.
“Please listen to the over 1,500 people who have voiced their support for the strong guardrails for data centers in this ordinance,” McClenton said.
Get Involved
While it’s unclear whether council members will vote on the ordinance next week, the New Castle County Council is scheduled to meet in-person at 6:30 p.m. on March 10, in the Louis L. Redding City County Building, located at 800 N. French St. in Wilmington. See the agenda and virtual meeting information here.
