Regulation
Madison County Approves Regulation on Cryptocurrency Mining Rigs as Moratorium Expires
Cryptocurrency mining rigs in a data center.
MARSHALL: A week later the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners has extended its moratorium on cryptocurrency/data processing operations by one year on May 7, Madison County commissioners chose a different option, deciding instead to approve changes to the land use ordinance to include language regulating such structures.
Madison County instituted a one-year moratorium on June 13, 2023 to allow time to include language in the county’s land use ordinance, which made no mention of such structures at the time.
With the moratorium set to expire next month, the county unanimously approved a resolution written by Development Services Director Brad Guth to include language amendments to land use ordinances that reflect data processing facilities.
On March 19th, the county Planning Board met to strengthen its draft text in the land use ordinance relating to such facilitiesand approved the changes recommended to the commissioners.
The Madison County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the planning board’s recommendations at its May 14 meeting.
“Data processing facilities are simply a group of uses that many people think of as cryptomining, but any type of server or industrial computer use would fall under the land use of data processing facilities,” Guth said.
According to Guth, as with the definition of a county biomass facilitythe regulation of data processing facilities recommended by the Planning Board was based on a number of criteria, including size.
A small data processing facility would constitute less than 10,000 square feet of server space.
Small data processing facilities would be permitted in commercial districts, while large facilities would be permitted in industrial districts.
The Planning Board’s draft language listed a number of requirements related to height, separation of uses, presentation requirements, access, security fencing, screening, utility notification, signage and noise.
Land use ordinance changes recommended by the Planning Board included a minimum height of 8 feet. The structures themselves should not exceed 35 feet. All electrical cables must be placed underground.
Additionally, the entire perimeter of the facility shall be shielded from adjacent properties by a buffer strip.
The structures will be subject to the Madison County Noise Ordinance and should not disturb activities on adjacent property.
The resolution approved by the commissioners reads, in part, that “the development and regulation of data processing facilities is essential to supporting the economic development and technological advancement of Madison County.”
Board feedback
Council member Jeremy Hensley asked Guth if a potential applicant had contacted the county about potentially bringing a data processing facility to Madison, to which Guth said no.
Guth said the county’s intention to include data processing facilities that regulate language was also spurred by the response of western North Carolina residents in Cherokee, the state’s farthest western county with hundreds of thousands of acres of forest unstable and few land regulations. where residents were outraged in 2019, after cryptocurrency mines began setting up shop and filled the day and night with the hum and hum of industrial fans.
Other problems include the local landfill dealing with large quantities of electronic waste and polystyrene packaging material.
At the Madison County Planning Board’s March meeting, Chris Joyell, director of MountainTrue Healthy Communities, which has worked with Cherokee County and its three existing facilities, said both e-waste and Styrofoam waste are were the two most serious problems at Cherokee County facilities.
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Other: Board considers crypto structures The Madison Planning Board considers how to handle potential data processing facilities
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Vice President Michael Garrison applauded Guth for his work on the regulation.
“Having the use of separation and perimeters draws a pretty definitive line that if you’re going to have one of these, you’re not going to have it in someone’s backyard,” Garrison said.
But council member Bill Briggs said he believes the 10,000-square-foot figure is too high a number to limit the size of a small facility.
“Ten thousand square feet, it’s not a small place,” Briggs said. “And that should be a small structure.”
Guth made a distinction between a small data processing facility and a residential home.
“It’s not necessarily small, in terms of respecting your home,” Guth said.
Briggs questioned whether the county could ban all applicants from setting up data processing facilities within Madison County limits, but Guth said that would not be possible.
“We can’t rule anything out,” Guth said. “It has to have a place in our ordinance that allows them to locate it. Now, you could change the zones where you have it, in the ordinance now, and only allow them in your industrial zone, if that’s something that would be more restrictive.
“But the Planning Board and the working groups that worked on this issue felt that they could have enough leeway and enough control over it so as not to have a negative impact on other businesses in our business areas – which are also very limited – so we don’t is that they will necessarily end up near someone’s house.”
Johnny Casey covered Madison County for three years for The Citizen Times and The News-Record & Sentinel. He won first place in beat news reporting in the 2023 North Carolina Press Association awards. He can be reached at 828-210-6074 or jcasey@citizentimes.com.
This article originally appeared in the Asheville Citizen Times: Madison County Approves Cryptocurrency Mining Regulation