Data centres included in RM’s draft zoning bylaw

Data centres have been added to the RM of Cornwallis zoning bylaw that is under development, though the reeve says he has heard no inquiries about building one in the area.

The first draft of the bylaw — recently completed by a consulting firm — designates data centres as a conditional use inside rural commercial business zones and industrial zones.

It defines the use as computer systems and network infrastructure that process, store and share data, and cryptocurreny mining facilities.

The update would bring the RM up to speed to cover potential land uses, but there is no plan to build a data centre, Reeve Mike Waddell told the Sun on Friday.

“There’s been no inquiries that I’m aware of — no, not at all,” Waddell said. “We’ve had no proposals that I’m aware of, even remotely resembling that.”

As a conditional use, data centre applications would need to go before council and through a public hearing process before they could be approved under the draft bylaw.

While the draft bylaw introduces data centres, it is not tied to a particular development, said Matt Gowdar, an intermediate planner at Landmark Planning, the company contracted to modernize the zoning bylaw.

“It’s not related to any sort of development proposal or anything like that,” Gowdar said. “This is something that’s very standard, and it’s been the case for a long time as zoning bylaws are being updated.”

Gowdar said that “every single” bylaw rewrite that he has done in the past few years has included data centres as a defined use. The reason it is included is to cover all the bases so that municipalities are equipped to deal with all kinds of land use applications, he said.

“It’s just about giving municipalities the tools that they need to appropriately regulate development if it ever were to arise,” Gowdar said.

If the bylaw did not define data centres, applicants could propose data centres “under a different use,” he said.

“In Cornwallis, the way their current zoning bylaw is written, because it’s a little bit old, anything that isn’t listed in the bylaw can be applied for as a conditional use and heard by council.”

The planning team has removed this clause because there can be issues with it, he said.

Waddell said that should a data centre be proposed in Cornwallis, he would judge the application on its merits. He said that would be his approach to any project brought forward, “regardless of what it is.”

“Prejudging any kind of project based on its initial 10,000-foot view is probably not a wise thing.”

Gowdar noted that the RM might have a “significant barrier” for large-scale development, because it lacks a municipal wastewater system.

“I’m not a data centre expert here,” he said. “Generally speaking, for industrial development, a lack of municipal services makes things more challenging.”

A revised zoning bylaw will come before council for readings in the coming months.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com