MAP: Data center rules enacted in Arkansas’ most populous county after judge’s veto overridden

Data center opponents notched a hard-fought win Tuesday night after the Pulaski County Quorum Court voted to override the outgoing county judge’s veto of land-use regulations for the facilities.

The 10-4 vote comes a month after Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde vetoed the regulations that the panel passed in September. 

Two data centers are planned in Pulaski County, one within Little Rock city limits and another in an unincorporated area just off 145th Street. The latter, being built by AVAIO, will have to comply with the regulations, the ordinance’s sponsor said last month.

Hyde — defeated in March’s Democratic primary by former circuit and appeals Judge Wendell Griffen, who authored the regulations — cited legal concerns when making the veto.

Since the quorum court first considered data center regulations for Arkansas’ most populous county in May, the opposition to the power-hungry computing hubs has grown, with polling showing increasingly bipartisan opposition.

That unpopularity has pitted pro-data center interests such as the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce against Pulaski County residents opposed to the AVAIO data center project in the unincorporated part of the county. 

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The new regulations require prospective data center projects to submit to the county electrical load analyses, water and wastewater plans, land-use suitability studies and a decommissioning plan, among other requirements. 

Hyde, in vetoing the regulations last month, raised questions about the legal risks of enacting the new limits.

Prospective data center projects would also be required to demonstrate that the development won’t “materially impair” utilities and other public infrastructure that serve surrounding properties under the new regulations, but do not limit the amount of water or power a project can use.

The override came the day after the city of Van Buren approved regulations of its own. The Arkansas River Valley community has received some preliminary inquiries from data center companies, according to Talk Business and Politics, but has not fielded anything beyond that.