Why Should Delaware Care?
Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s governments have scores of commissions, councils, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.
Data centers face resistance in central Delaware
Don’t tell Dover officials that summer is the slow period for policy-making.
The City Council of Delaware’s capital city is in the early stages of considering an 18-month moratorium on data center construction within the municipality. Listed on the agenda for the Council’s Committee of Whole meeting Tuesday is an item called, “Drafting A Temporary Moratorium For Data Centers.”
The proposal comes less than a month after Kent County officials adopted regulations that restrict where data centers can be built in unincorporated parts of the county.
At the time, they also signaled that the county could impose a ban on the construction of data centers in those unincorporated areas in the future.
Dover City Councilwoman Donyale Hall said in meeting documents that Kent County’s new regulations could push developers of data centers into Dover’s city limits. That, in turn, makes it necessary for the City Council to consider “adopting comprehensive regulations before additional applications are submitted,” she said.
Separately, Dover City Councilman David Anderson asked his followers in a social media post on July 30 whether Dover should implement a data center moratorium.
The responses in the comments tended to be supportive of the move, though some commenters said the city should adopt an outright ban on the facilities.
📍 The Dover City Council Committee of the Whole will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall Council Chambers, located at 15 Loockerman Plaza. For additional details, including a virtual attendance link, click here.
Sussex sewers and solar
Moving south, the Sussex County Council will discuss a string of proposals during its Tuesday meeting, including an extension of the county’s sewer system to a community near Ocean View, and a land-use permit to accommodate a solar farm near Long Neck.
Two months ago, neighbors of the proposed solar project created a petition formally opposing the development, which is backed by Denver-based Pivot Energy.
During a previous meeting of the Sussex County Council, a company engineer said one concern he had heard “loud and clear” from neighbors was around the noise the facility would emit. But he said a noise study of the solar arrays and their electrical inverter returned results that he likened to a “quiet room.”
📍 The Sussex County Council is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday inside the Sussex County Administrative Office Building, located at 2 The Circle in Georgetown. The solar project will be discussed during the public hearing portion of the meeting, which will begin at 1:30 p.m. For more details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.
