Cache County Council joins other Utah counties by placing a hold on data center approval

SALT LAKE CITY — The Cache County Council has placed a temporary pause on approving data centers while council members and others in the county look into how impactful a data center might be.

Cache County Development Services Director Brian Abbott presented the proposal June 23, during the last Cache County Council meeting.

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“During this moratorium, Cache County will not accept, review, or process any applications for data centers in any zone. Also, we will evaluate if we will allow data centers, what codes do we need to add or code that prohibits them altogether,” he said.

The moratorium extends for 180 days while the zoning and planning department reviews existing codes. 

“Our current county codes for zoning development and construction standards do not contain clear definitions or regulations to manage industrial-scale digital installations adjacent to any of our agricultural or residential areas,” Abbott said.

During their last meeting, council member Sandy Goodlander emphasized that placing a hold on new data center consideration was not a reaction to any current proposals.

“We have not received any interest, that we’re aware of, [of] somebody wanting to put [in] a data center,” said Goodlander. “This is just us trying to get ahead of something that may or may not even come. We want to be ready if it does.”

Data centers and Utah elections

Cache County is not the first to pause potential data center projects; Iron County has also put a pause in place. These pauses look to be a reaction to the large-scale data center project proposed in Box Elder County that drew criticism from around the state. Box Elder County later put a moratorium on approving new data centers in place, but many residents called it “too little, too late.”

Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and two Box Elder County commissioners lost their bids for re-election during Utah’s primary election last month. As the head of Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority, or MIDA, Adams helped promote the data center in Box Elder County, before ultimately demanding it be scaled down in size. The two Box Elder County commissioners, Boyd Bingham and Lee Perry, voted in favor of two resolutions that advanced plans for the data center in Box Elder County.

The Cache County moratorium only applies to unincorporated properties, and not to any specific towns or cities.

Council member David Erickson said, “That’s their business.”