By JAMES BROWN
Glasgow News 1
A possible change to the Cave City zoning ordinance has sparked a visceral response by some on social media. The ordinance will be on the Cave City City Council agenda Monday, mayor Dwayne Hatcher confirmed.
Hatcher requested changes to his city’s zoning ordinance at an April 30, 2026, Joint City-County Planning Commission meeting. He had submitted a letter to the commission outlining why he requested a change that pertains to data processing centers.
“Our thing is we just don’t want to close the window of opportunity in case we do have [one],” Hatcher told the commissioners during the meeting. He added the guardrails in the section along with the permitted use option “sets us in a position to at least look at an opportunity if it arises.”
The section added to the ordinance is below.
12.4.4 Data Processing Centers
1. The development is capable of producing at least fifty (50%) percent of the electricity required to adequately sustain operation for the site in which the data center is located.
2. Data centers shall utilize self-contained cooling systems that do not rely on, withdraw from, or discharge to the municipal public water supply system without coordination with the local water utility provider pertaining to the capacity required to continue adequate service to the existing network.
3. Any activity under jurisdiction of the Kentucky State Board on Electric Generation and Transmission Siting must submit a decommissioning plan with the development plans pursuant to KRS 278.704
4. Any building housing a data center be located no closer than one thousand (1,000’) feet from any adjacent residential zoned district.
5. Any building housing data center be located no closer than two hundred (200’) feet from any property line.
Along with the added section, Hatcher requested that data processing centers be classified as permitted use rather than conditional use, and that they only be allowed in heavy industrial zones (I-2) in the city.
The Cave City City Council will vote on these possible changes at the Monday council meeting. The meeting is at 5 p.m. at Cave City City Hall at 103 Duke St.
THINGS TO KNOW
Permitted use versus Conditional Use
Conditional — Requires proposed projects to be reviewed by the Barren County Board of Adjustments.
Permitted — Allows proposed projects to be considered under established guidelines with fewer procedural reviews.
Glasgow and Park City
Both of the other municipalities in Barren County have data processing centers zoned for heavy industrial areas, but with conditional use.
Barren County
The county has no countywide zoning, which means there are no restrictions at present on where a data processing center could locate outside of city limits.
HOT BUTTON TOPIC
As artificial intelligence increases in use across all parts of peoples’ work and private lives, the computers used to process that data have grown in size and need. That has led to the construction of data processing centers across the nation. Just this year it has sparked outrage from citizens in Franklin, Kentucky, about 45 miles from Glasgow, near the border with Tennessee.
Earlier this week the Simpson County Fiscal Court adopted an ordinance that defines “advanced technology centers” — including data centers — and allows them as conditional use in both incorporated and unincorporated areas of the county, according to WNKY.
At the April 30 planning commission meeting, director Kevin Myatt explained that without a defined use for the data centers within the zoning ordinance, they could locate anywhere.
The Simpson fiscal court action came after TenKey LandCo sued the county in January after the county passed an ordinance requiring that data centers be required to locate in heavy industrial zoned areas and be conditional use. TenKey owns 200 acres near Steele Road in Franklin. The lawsuit is ongoing, according to WNKY.
In Oldham County last summer, the fiscal court passed a moratorium on all data center applications after community members opposed one being located there on rural farm land, according to Louisville Public Media.
In Meade County last year, the planning commission voted last year to block a prospective data center project.
The Kentucky General Assembly passed major tax incentives in 2025 to lure the massive computing facilities to the state.
Comments