Alabama residents left powerless to stop massive Bitcoin mining data center despite county and town moratoriums — hole in state zoning laws lets facility through

Somerville in Morgan County, Alabama, is a quiet, idyllic town full of green pastures, grazing animals, and soon enough, a Bitcoin mining center. Despite the many protests from residents and moratoriums at both county and town level, the 50-MW facility from VoltCore is going ahead, due to a teeny weeny problem with the zoning laws: there aren't any, or at least, none that apply.

More specifically, Alabama is one of the many states where counties don't have any power over zoning (Dillon's Rule) until they hit at least 600,000 residents, which isn't the case in Morgan County. Municipalities and towns do have that legal ability, but many towns don't apply it, and when they do, they have limitations on how they apply it outside of town borders. That's precisely the situation that Somerville and its residents find themselves in, having had no need for zoning control until now.

Both the county and Somerville have enacted moratoriums against VoltCore's buildout, but those cannot legally stop the construction, since it's built on private land. According to Ray Long, Morgan County Commission Chairman, "We can’t keep them from doing anything right now because there's no laws at all in Morgan County in rural areas [...] There's no zoning, there’s none of that, so we really don't have anything to stand on other than what we can say is, 'We really wish you wouldn't do it.'"

There are also several petitions running, the largest with about 2,000 signatories, and a GoFundMe campaign to try and hire a lawyer to help with the situation. Alabama's Limited Self-Governance Act does predict having to deal with noise and pollution concerns, but it's written in such a way that specifically prevents it from being used to control zoning. The VoltCore build even has an approved energy connection from the Tennessee Valley Authority, and work is reportedly proceeding as usual, connecting water, gas, and AT&T lines.

Even if the Somerville town drafted a local law for zoning, it would take many months and multiple rounds for it to pass, and even still would almost certainly only apply prospectively and not to the VoltCore installation. Furthermore, the data center's location just outside the edge of town could put it outside legal reach regardless.

Other Alabama counties have taken notice of the problem, though, as a recent report indicates that data center bans will be a hot topic at an upcoming Association of County Commissioners. The dim view of data centers in general across the United States has rallied quite a number of states. South Dakota signed a law limiting installations of 10 MW or more, while New York, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and many others all have proposals in motion to hold or control new buildouts.

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