The Jeffersonville City Council passed a one-year data center moratorium this week. (Aprile Rickert / LPM)Jeffersonville is joining neighbors across Southern Indiana that are moving quickly to address data centers in zoning codes, or prevent new construction of centers until they can.The Jefferso nville City Council approved a one-year moratorium on data centers at its meeting Monday, to give staff time to update the city’s Uniformed Development Ordinance to better regulate data centers.It would not apply to the River Ridge Commerce Center, nor the Meta data center nearing completion there. The park’s development authority has control over what goes there. Jeffersonville approves its development plans, but doesn’t have a say in land use.The council was initially considering a six-month pause, but amended that to one year at Monday’s meeting.Council Member Evan Stoner said in a text message the moratorium will allow planning staff to “examine how municipalities across Indiana and the country are responding to the influx of data centers being proposed or built.”Other Southern Indiana municipalities are also responding to the issue of data centers. The New Albany City Council unanimously approved a one-year moratorium in July as it looks at zoning updates, and other municipalities are also weighing pauses or code changes.For most, the outdated zoning codes didn’t even name data centers, which could limit municipalities’ control over regulating them or where they go.Jeffersonville’s code does: It allows “internet server” facilities in industrial areas. But City Attorney Les Merkley said the problem is that could allow them near residential areas.The language was added a few years ago and Chad Reischl, Jeffersonville’s director of Planning and Zoning, told LPM News this summer that leaders could make changes if and when they made sense.Now, they’re moving quickly to address zoning.Though the ordinance called for three separate votes, the final at a later meeting, Council Member Scott Hawkins moved Monday to suspend the rules and take a final vote.He said he had concerns that someone could put in an application before the moratorium was in place.Several residents who spoke in public comment ahead of the vote said they want to see a moratorium.They shared concerns about economics, noise and pollution and the potential costs and benefits to the community when companies receive tax breaks and provide few jobs.Resident Susan West said data centers should be at least a half-mile away from residents, farms, schools and state parks, and that the companies should be required to provide all of their own electricity.Rachel Wurfel, who lives less than a mile-and-a-half from Meta’s data center, said construction has already impacted her neighborhood, with light pollution, heavy traffic and foundation damage.“So we've sacrificed a lot in our neighborhood for one of the richest corporations in the world,” she said.Proposed zoning changes with the Unified Development Ordinance will first go to the city’s plan commission for approval, then to the city council. There will be opportunity for public input at both stages. Officials hope to have this in place before the state’s next legislative session starts in January.Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County. ...read more read less