Murray residents demand data center ban at ordinance hearing

The Murray community was invited to speak in a public hearing on the Murray Planning Commission’s draft for a data center ordinance, which would locally regulate the rising national concern. Residents were asked to provide critiques and thoughts on how the draft could improve.

But residents did not want an ordinance; they wanted an outright ban.

However, that discussion was neither the subject nor the objective of the ordinance hearing. The planning commission informed the public there is no application for the installation of a data center, and before any discussion of any setting up in Murray can be had and determining if it’s in favor of the people or not – the regulations must be drafted.

Residents stepped up to the podium to speak their concerns in regard to the ordinance.

Noise and water pollution, costs and health threats

Lynn Rogers, the first to speak at the podium, said the ordinance is an acceptance of data centers in the city. He continued saying its intent would be a door-opener as a structure for one arriving in the city.

“(This draft of the ordinance talks) about the purpose, and then appropriate locations, constructions, and operations, agricultural land, and all this,” Rogers said. “I think all this needs to be looked a little bit farther into. I know you got to do something … please proceed with caution.”

The commission had elected not to increase a 50 feet measurement in obtaining baseline noise levels toward perpendicular properties to the data center, prior to public comment. Rogers said this decision was wrong.

This concern was shared by Benjamin Childs, who identified himself as a sound engineer for his church, who agreed with Rogers.

“I want to make a motion for that to be approved,” Childs said. “If you’re taking one straight shot on a sound level, if you walk 25 foot left or 25 foot right, that sound level will change. You can’t just have one straight line and say ‘oh, it’s okay.’”

He also agreed with Keith York, who spoke about the data center impact on utilities.

York directed the commission to several pages of the ordinance, referencing details of generator testing requirements and cooling requirements in its use of public utilities.

“I’ve read about what is being pushed for data centers is that they be required to provide their own power,” York said. “Do you have the authority to change the ordinance so that it would require any data center to provide their own electricity and not use any public electricity? Do we have the authority to make the ordinance so that they have to use their own water, because there is a point here on cooling requirements (on) page 13, section E(11)(a), ‘all liquid cooling equipment must be designed to utilize a closed loop system, and a closed loop system must be used for all data centers.’”

Logan Cherry, concerned for environmental impact, directed the commission to page 4, which says data centers need to be built 50 feet away from any boundary of a wetland.

Wetlands in the United States are endangered, and the environment is a critical component to reducing Kentucky’s flood risk and transforming pollutants – because of this, Cherry said a 50-foot gap is a joke.

Cherry also took issue with the same consideration for farmland. He said there is no distance requirement a data center has to fulfill from any farms, meaning it could be built as close as a company could desire; and he warned the commission the cost of that.

“There are ranchers in Texas who have reported that the incessant noise produced by data centers down there in Texas are causing all the calves to be stillborn,” Cherry said.

The available information about these Texas stillborn calves comes from Clayton Tucker, a democratic candidate running for Texas agriculture commissioner, who spoke at a meeting like Murray’s. He said he’s learned this from one farmer living next to a data center, who has not had a calf born since it was built. Clayton claims in an interview, the noise is also harming chickens and horses.

While there are no concrete reports of this happening in Texas, Raegan Settle, a Murray native and editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian, said she receives calls and emails from residents of Oxford, Mississippi, about how their children cannot breathe in their homes because of the XAI data center, owned by Elon Musk.

She said due to no regulation, XAI operated the gas turbines of the former Duke Energy in July 2025, followed by the state approving 18 unpermitted turbines in August because the machinery fell under an exemption because they were not permanently installed. The turbines increased to 27 in December; today, there are 46, running day and night.

“This is what happens when a community has no specific enforceable data center regulations in place before a developer arrives, so I’m thankful that you’ve taken this initiative under your bed,” Settle said.

But she warned them, too.

“Without imposing prohibitive data center regulations, you will inevitably receive those calls from the citizens of Murray,” she continued. “You, however, will have to sit with the guilt that we could have done more to prevent them had we imposed more prohibitive regulations. You have the power to grant Murray a competitive advantage as a city where data centers cannot be developed, which in time is sure to attract young families and professionals to move here and invest in a community committed to the protection and longevity of its citizens, economy, and environment.”

Data Center ordinance’s vulnerabilities

Settle provided the commission a list of 10 vulnerabilities – some she called loopholes – that need to be addressed.

Planning Commission Chair John Krieb said the authority with issuing a moratorium lies with the city council, not the planning commission.

The city council is meeting Thursday, June 11, at 6 p.m.

After the public hearing, the commission declined advancing the ordinance to the city council. Instead, commissioners will reconvene on June 23 to review a new draft based on the feedback from the meeting.

Concerned citizens fill the council chambers at Murray's City Hall in advance of Tuesday's planning commission meeting. (RIVER MURT/The Murray Sentinel)

Republished in partnership with The Murray Sentinel. For more information, click here.