The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors has approved an urgency ordinance placing a 45-day moratorium on any proposed data center projects.

“The reason we are doing this is to prevent applications coming in for construction of buildings that could be used as data centers, and could be processed under a building permit,” Deputy County Counsel Matthew Kiedrowski told the board during its Sept. 1 meeting, explaining that “if the initial ordinance is adopted today, we anticipate being back before the board on Oct. 6 for a noticed Public Hearing on a renewal ordinance.”

Most of the handful of residents who addressed the board this week spoke in support of the moratorium, which was first discussed by the board in July.

“Lots of people in the community are concerned about this issue,” said 3rd District Supervisor John Haschak, who sponsored the proposed item along with 5th District Supervisor Ted Williams, explaining at the July 7 meeting that “in talking with the Department of Planning and Building Services, we don’t really have capacity right now to have discretion in the permitting of some of these data centers if they were to come into Mendocino County, so I think this moratorium just provides us a tool to really explore what the issues are, and to come up with an ordinance that would be appropriate for what the people in Mendocino County want.”

And while Supervisor Williams added at the time that he did not believe that exploring such a moratorium was “the highest priority, it is also not the lowest, because we want some ability to ensure that we’re protecting our communities.”

Second District Supervisor Maureen Mulheren thanked her fellow supervisors for bringing the item forward, as she also hears concerns from the community regarding data centers, while Board Chairman and 4th District Supervisor Bernie Norvell said he would also like “the fiscal impacts to the county, both positive and negative, to be a consideration as well.”

When the urgency ordinance returned to the board at its Sept. 1 meeting, Supervisor Haschak said many had wondered why the ordinance was only for 45 days, and he noted that (Kiedrowski) had explained “that’s what we do with the Urgency Ordinances, and that we will come back on Oct. 6 and hopefully extend it, for a year or two years, so that we can do the ordinance right.”

“We want to have a policy in place to avoid nuisances and other unanticipated consequences,” said Williams, who invited a representative of the Mendocino Redwood Company to join the discussions as the long-term ordinance is drafted, since she had pointed out Tuesday that co-locating data centers with sawmills can be beneficial, as the heat generated helps with drying lumber.

“It is conceivable that there will be uses for computers in a room besides spying on Americans,” Williams said. “And hearing the potential for co-using the heat that is generated so it is not a waste product, I think those are the kind of discussions we want to have.”

First District Supervisor Madeline Cline said she also “appreciated the comments” made by the representative of Mendocino Forest Products, and that she was supportive of the language currently in the ordinance, which she thought ultimately could be crafted “very thoughtfully and carefully in collaboration with our community,” noting that while she didn’t “know of any data centers that are knocking on our door, I understand that this is something the public wants.”

The board then voted 5-0 to approve a 45-day moratorium on data centers until another public hearing on Oct. 6.