Essex to review current planning policies, appropriateness of ICB regarding IT Data Centres

Essex to review the appropriateness of ICB policies regarding IT Data Centres

by Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative

Administration for the Town of Essex will prepare a report regarding Information Technology (IT) Data Centers within the Town of Essex, as Essex Council unanimously directed at the September 8th regular meeting.

The report will review the current planning policy framework and regulatory tools available to the municipality, consider the ongoing County of Essex land use policy planning study, evaluate the appropriateness of implementing an Interim Control Bylaw (ICB), and provide recommendations regarding any necessary planning policy, zoning, or other regulatory measures.

Council also directed the Planning Department for the Town of Essex to immediately notify the Mayor and Council in writing upon the receipt of any application request, or any formal application or zoning inquiry, regarding AI Data Centers or similar high-density computing.

Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy brought this forward at the August meeting as a Notice of Motion, recognizing that the County of Essex was moving forward with a study looking into AI Data Centers and possible relations with County and municipal Official Plans and other planning policies and by-laws. The County will spend up to $150,000 to have the study completed.

Director of Planning Services, Lori Chadwick, explained the seven local municipalities that make up the County of Essex will work with the County as it prepares its AI Data Center study as part of a steering committee. 

As the County undertakes this study with a consultant, Chadwick said the Town of Essex and the other regional municipal partners will also review their own land use policies to see if there is room for improvement or if there are policies that need to be strengthened or separated to refine their own policies.

Deputy Mayor Rob Shepley noted that around the County Council table when this matter was discussed, there was a focus on ensuring the study was conducted through a municipal lens. It was noted the County is limited in what it can do in terms of AI Data Centers. 

Tyler Reh, a Harrow resident who submitted a petition to the County of Essex in support of completing the study and also spoke at a County Council meeting to share concerns about AI Data Centers, addressed Essex Council. 

Reh is also an engineer with over 20-years of experience in data analysis, research and development, and noise and frequency vibration testing.

During the August 10 meeting, where County Council approved the Notice of Motion that Kingsville Deputy Mayor Kim DeYong put forward to initiate the study, Reh reiterated that the County Planner, Rebecca Belanger, stated the Town of Essex's existing by-laws leave it exposed. 

As Essex’s by-laws stand currently, Reh said they can claim light industrial or generic industrial, for instance. There would be limited recourse to regulate and protect taxpayers based on what he called for zoning laws. 

He shared a number of potential concerns he has relating to AI Data Centers, including grid instability, that it could take away from existing manufacturing and housing that exists and the ability to expand in those areas, wastewater contamination, microclimate alterations, acoustic pollution, soil and light degradation, pollution, impacts to nearby agricultural land, safety hazards, localized flooding, what would become of the hazardous electronic waste when it reaches its end of life cycle, impact to nearby land value, and tax distortion. 

Councillor Katie McGuire-Blais said the motion that Bondy put forward was good, as it is starting to look at what the Town needs to do to protect itself. 

She said Data Centers are a thing of the future and is something Canada needs. She said Canada can't have Data Centers in other countries that would have control over them. All levels of government need to be on the same page. 

She thanked Reh for his work and advocacy on the issue.

In terms of the Provincial Playbook for Data Centers the province is working on, Reh said it is missing, specifically, low-frequency vibrations and infrasound. It also says nothing about decommissioning plants and outlining what happens when these facilities are no longer useful.