Iron County presses pause on new AI data center proposals to review current regulations

CEDAR CITY — The Iron County Planning Commission pressed pause on any new applicants wanting to build artificial intelligence data centers in the county, initiating a 180-day moratorium to review current zoning laws and regulations.

The moratorium comes in the wake of the proposed Pronghorn data center that is projected to be built on 640 acres 15 miles northwest of Cedar City. That application has been deemed complete, is currently in the review process, and will not be affected by the 180-day pause.

Iron County planner and services coordinator Brett Hamilton told KSL on Wednesday that the reason for the moratorium is to gain "additional strength and guidance," adding that the county had recently received another application tied to BrightNight's Red Butte project.

"We've learned a lot in the last five months since processing this first application, and there were some areas of our current zoning ordinance that we felt could use some additional strength and guidance," he said. "We do feel like there's maybe some areas of our code that need more information to make a good decision on these larger hyper-scale facilities that we are seeing proposed."

The largest concern that residents have had is the use of water. And with Pronghorn development proposing a one-time fill of roughly 2.6 million gallons (8 acre-feet), with a projected annual use of about 3.13 acre-feet of water for indoor and outdoor use, that concern is valid, said Iron County Commissioner Paul Cozzens.

"That's what everybody's fear is, and they should be worried about water; we all are," Cozzens said. "This Pronghorn development ... is on a piece of property ... called Basin 71, and the water rights are fully appropriated. They've already been divvied out.

"(The proposed data center) is on private property, and they're selling to a willing buyer," he added. "As long as they meet the conditions that the planning commission puts forth, then they can get a permit. That's how the industry works. ... There are private property rights, and people have the right to develop their land and do what they want to. And I guess if we don't like it, we've got to probably move, but I love Cedar."

Cozzens agreed that a pause on AI data center proposals will help the planning commission have more time to look over things, adding that he has full trust in the planning commission to make decisions that are right for the citizens of Iron County.

"This is kind of new to everybody," he said. "We didn't go out and say, 'Hey, we want data centers. Come to Iron County.' These people approached us. ... This will be decided by the planning commission, which is a body of volunteers who are very smart, capable people. It's a thankless job, honestly.

"Our planning and zoning department work together to research issues that protect the citizens of Iron County," he continued. "One reason we as a county decided to do a moratorium is we wanted to pump the brakes because we've had another applicant file, and we wanted to do some more research to make sure that the public's protected."

Hamilton said the next 180 days will be busy as the county puts together clearer guidelines for these projects moving forward.

"It's one of those things where even if we didn't have updated regulations put into place, then we'd have to continue processing new applications under the existing regulation," Hamilton said. "There are a lot of folks who have asked why we can't go over 180 days, and the state law is pretty clear on that. With this type of ordinance, we are limited to 180 days. So, we're going to have to work within that time frame and see what we can come up with."

With the current moratorium not affecting the Pronghorn development proposal, the planning commission will vote on the permit application on June 4, at 5:30 p.m. at Festival Hall in Cedar City.

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