Clay County discusses potential data center

With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, tech companies are in a race to reach general artificial intelligence. On Monday, Aug.31, Vermillion Planning and Zoning Commission reconvened to propose amendments to Zoning Regulations for data centers. 

Conversations with data center developers have been taking place across the Midwest this past year, some of which regarding the potential construction of a data center in Clay County. In late July, Yankton County passed a six-month moratorium to review environmental and economic impacts while discussing the official zoning. 

The Volante heard from both Caitlin Collier, a community organizer and Austin Brunick, a candidate for District 17 representative of the South Dakota House. 

“Locally, there has been no polling, but judging from the sentiments expressed at city and county governmental meetings and a recent public forum, Clay County and Vermillion residents also don’t want a data center here and that opinion crosses rural/city, political party and age lines,” Collier said.  

Jim Petersen began giving talks about data centers, which led to the public discovering the possibility of a data center being placed in the Vermillion area.

“The biggest concerns are: the amount of light and noise pollution AI data centers create, how much water they will use and if they are going to use a closed-loop system, power usage, and protecting everyday citizens from utility costs from going up,” Brunick said. 

These concerns have been voiced by community members throughout the meetings taken place at the City Council Chambers. 

“The big incentive for small rural areas is property taxes. With the amount of land used, the data centers have to pay large amounts of property tax, unless the state has created tax incentives which reduce or eliminate the payment of property taxes by data centers,” Collier said. South Dakota has not created tax incentives at this point of time. 

For landowners these incentives may be taken into consideration for giving up their land. However, for students in the area, there are more concerns than there are incentives.

“Students will be forced to live on-campus because they will be priced out of apartments, if any are available. Students and families already living off-campus will see their rent close to double when they sign their new lease,” Brunick said.

Students wanting to voice their perspective can register as aSouth Dakota voter with their university  address and vote in the midterm elections come November. Students can also contact their County Commissioners and City Council members.

The next meeting to evaluate the ordinances is set to take place on Sept. 14.