By: Jesse Davis
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jesse@thevillagereporter.com
Swancreek Township Zoning Commission members voted to advance a proposed new set of zoning rules for data centers, advanced manufacturing facilities, and solar fields to the trustees after a public hearing Tuesday evening, Oct. 20.
Only one resident attended the public hearing – Scott Taylor, who is also a member of the township’s Board of Zoning Appeals. Speaking on his own behalf as a resident, Taylor made no recommendations to the commission, but asked several clarifying questions about how commission members came to certain decisions about the proposed data center rules.
In response to Taylor’s questions, commission chair Justin Watson said the idea behind the rules is to disincentivize their development while still providing a reasonable legal path.
“The whole purpose of this is you can’t make it illegal for any of these to happen, there has to be a legal pathway, but we thought the most important pathway would be to make sure there were the most amount of meetings so that the public could be aware of what’s happening, instead of someone sneaking in,” Watson said.
Taylor also asked about how the rules would affect the unzoned areas of the township, to which Watson replied the rules wouldn’t affect them at all, as the zoning regulations only affect zoned areas.
Watson said trustees have considered zoning the rest of the township, but it must be voted on in an election and there is little appetite from residents of the unzoned areas – who would be the only ones allowed to vote on the issue – to become zoned. He said he has informed trustees that there is a nuclear option, to remove all zoning from the township and then bring up a vote to rezone the entire township, so all township residents would vote, but said despite being the one who raised the possibility that even he was not recommending that path.
With passage by the commission, the township trustees will now hold their own public hearing on the proposed rules before voting.
The next regular meeting of the Swancreek Township Zoning Commission will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, November 17, at the township offices, located at 5565 County Road D.