Question 1 - Utility-Intensive Data Center Ban

Shall the City of Ottawa, Kansas, adopt an ordinance prohibiting the establishment, construction, conversion, expansion, operation, or maintenance within the corporate limits of the City of any Utility-Intensive Data Center, defined as a data-center use whose aggregate designed electrical load at full buildout is equal to or greater than twenty-five (25) megawatts? PROPOSED ORDINANCE ORDINANCE NO. __________ AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF OTTAWA, KANSAS, PROHIBITING UTILITY-INTENSIVE DATA CENTERS IN ORDER TO PROTECT MUNICIPAL UTILITY INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY, AND WELFARE. WHEREAS, the City of Ottawa owns and operates municipal water and electrical systems that provide essential public services to residents, businesses, public institutions, emergency services, and reasonably anticipated future growth; and WHEREAS, municipal utility infrastructure has finite capacity and must be managed to preserve reliable service, protect public investment, and maintain sufficient capacity for present and future community needs; and WHEREAS, the City's Municipal Water Conservation Plan recognizes the need to preserve adequate water supplies for essential personal, commercial, industrial, public-safety, and firefighting needs, and identifies drought conditions as circumstances in which water availability may become limited; and WHEREAS, Utility-Intensive Data Centers are a distinct industrial land use characterized by concentrated and continuous electrical demand and associated requirements for water, generation, cooling, backup power, substations, transmission, or other utility infrastructure that differ substantially from traditional commercial, institutional, office, and manufacturing uses; and WHEREAS, the City's existing zoning regulations, including applicable industrial and overlay districts, do not establish land-use standards specifically governing Utility-Intensive Data Centers or their aggregate utility demands; and WHEREAS, preserving the capacity, reliability, and long-term availability of municipal utility infrastructure is a legitimate governmental objective and a proper exercise of the City's authority to protect the public health, safety, and welfare; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE CITY OF OTTAWA, KANSAS: SECTION 1. PURPOSE. The purpose of this Ordinance is to preserve municipal utility capacity, protect finite public resources and public investment, safeguard essential infrastructure, and promote the public health, safety, and welfare by prohibiting Utility-Intensive Data Centers within the corporate limits of the City of Ottawa. SECTION 2. DEFINITION. "Utility-Intensive Data Center" means a principal land use consisting of one or more buildings, structures, facilities, or portions thereof whose principal purpose is the housing or operation of computer servers, data-storage systems, networking equipment, or substantially similar high-density computing technology for the processing, storage, management, hosting, or transmission of digital data, and whose aggregate designed electrical load at full buildout is equal to or greater than twenty-five (25) megawatts, whether that load is supplied through the electrical grid, on-site generation, or any combination thereof. The aggregate designed electrical load shall include the maximum reasonably anticipated coincident electrical demand of all buildings, phases, tenants, service connections, and operations that are part of a common development plan, share utility or support infrastructure, or function as a coordinated facility, regardless of separate ownership, tenancy, metering, applications, permits, or phasing. This definition does not include computer servers or data-processing equipment that are accessory and incidental to another lawful principal use, including an office, educational institution, hospital, manufacturing facility, public-safety facility, utility operation, telecommunications facility, or governmental operation. SECTION 3. PROHIBITED LAND USE. Utility-Intensive Data Centers are prohibited as a principal land use in every zoning district and overlay district within the corporate limits of the City of Ottawa, Kansas. No person or legal entity shall establish, construct, convert, expand, operate, maintain, or cause to be established, constructed, converted, expanded, operated, or maintained a Utility-Intensive Data Center within the City. SECTION 4. AGGREGATION AND PHASED DEVELOPMENT. A project shall not avoid application of this Ordinance through separate parcels, buildings, tenants, owners, operators, utility meters, service connections, applications, permits, or phases. Facilities shall be considered together when they are part of a common development plan, share utility or support infrastructure, or are designed or operated as a coordinated data-center site or campus. SECTION 5. NO EXCEPTION OR ALTERNATIVE LAND-USE APPROVAL. No variance, special-use permit, conditional-use permit, planned-development approval, overlay approval, or other land-use approval shall authorize a use prohibited by this Ordinance. SECTION 6. ENFORCEMENT. A Utility-Intensive Data Center established, constructed, expanded, operated, or maintained in violation of this Ordinance constitutes an unlawful land use. The City may enforce this Ordinance through any lawful remedy available under the City Code or applicable law, including permit denial or revocation when authorized, civil enforcement, injunctive relief, abatement, and any other remedy permitted by law. SECTION 7. SEVERABILITY. The provisions of this Ordinance are severable. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase, definition, or application of this Ordinance is held invalid or unconstitutional by a court of competent jurisdiction, the remaining provisions and applications shall remain in full force and effect to the fullest extent permitted by law. SECTION 8. CONFLICTING PROVISIONS. To the extent permitted by law, when this Ordinance imposes a greater restriction than another ordinance, regulation, approval, or provision of the City Code, this Ordinance shall control. Nothing in this Ordinance shall be construed to diminish a greater restriction imposed by applicable state or federal law. SECTION 9. EFFECTIVE DATE. If adopted by the Governing Body, this Ordinance shall take effect upon publication as provided by law. If submitted to the electors pursuant to K.S.A. 12-3013, this Ordinance shall become valid and binding upon approval by a majority of the qualified electors voting thereon, as provided by law. WHEREFORE, the undersigned electors respectfully request that the Governing Body proceed in accordance with K.S.A. 12-3013.