(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 this (Tues.) morning to schedule a public hearing on a proposed 6-month moratorium for the issuance of permits for industrial scale data centers, bit coin operations, battery storage and solar facilities. The original proposal called for a 15 month pause.
Supervisor Steve Clark initially brought the matter to the board April 14th. It was tabled at that time to get feedback from the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission. A couple of supervisors met with the P & Z at a meeting last week to gather that input.
Clark again today (Tues.) advocated for the moratorium, saying he feels it’s important to have one in place before a formal request for a conditional use permit is made by such a company…
“You know, they won’t be able to say, well, your regulations at the time didn’t say we couldn’t do this. I think it’s a safeguard that we need to have just for Planning and Zoning and Board of Adjustment to be educated on this. I don’t necessarily know if it should be a conditional use plan. I think it needs to be an ordinance written and I think this gives them time to do it.”
Erica Schultes, a member of the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission, was at today’s (Tues.) supervisors meeting. She said it was a consensus of that group last week that a moratorium isn’t needed…
“It’s not idle time that we’re asking for. We’re just asking for information to be able to work through this process. I’m not sure what six months of saying no to anything is going to do that we can’t do in six months of just moving forward and getting our information that the Planning and Zoning Board can review and look at and discuss.”
Clark, along with fellow supervisors Steve Dullard and Levi Markwardt, voted in favor of setting a public hearing on a proposed moratorium for 9:00 am Tuesday, May 12th. Chairman Bill Leupold and Supervisor Kim Wermersen voted no.
