After adopting a moratorium last month on new data centers, the Oklahoma City Council voted this week to give a break to some data center operators and exempt them from the suspension.
Instead, those existing data centers with electrical loads of 75 MW or less won’t be affected as the Council voted 7-2 for the exemption. The vote came as data center supporters packed the council chambers. An estimated 150 data center operators were on hand for this week’s city council meeting.
The Oklahoman reported the amendments to the original April 21 moratorium were proposed by Mayor david Holt who said they were “creating some common-sense exemptions to the temporary moratorium.”
However, two council members opposed the exemptions, designed especially for the , including Councilmember JoBeth Hamon, Ward 6.
“It feels a bit like favoritism,” she said, wondering about the legal risk of creating the exemptions for two properties that do not have active application.
Councilman James Cooper, Ward 2, questioned the exemptions sought by Expand Energy’s campus and its data centers. He could not support them.
““As it stands, this is not something I can support. I know there are a lot of people in this room today who are very supportive of data centers. I could fill this room with my students. I could fill this room with a lot of Ward 2 residents who would actually share my concerns.”
The gathering of data center supporters was the work of Trevor Francis, an official of the Expand Energy campus who said nearly all of the 150 who were on hand for the vote were workers linked to the buildings that make up the campus.
“We have a few hundred people outside that have created jobs in the last 12 months. We have invested $250 million in this city and this is what you’re seeing here.”
The exemptions granted by the city council vote will not allow developers to avoid other zoning regulations and rules. They will still have to follow the zoning and permitting rules.
The Oklahoman reported, the city’s legal team drafted the amendment to operate as “if you are a data center right now, it is business as usual, the moratorium does not impact your ability to continue business.”
But, if those businesses want to build net-new data centers or expand on a current data center, the associated electrical load cannot exceed the threshold of 75 MW, citing experts and other laws that describe facilities operating within and exceeding 70-100 MW as hyperscale.