Monroeville to begin discussing data center rules

MONROEVILLE — Village officials are preparing to begin public discussions on local rules for data centers after placing a temporary moratorium on such projects earlier this year. The village planning commission is scheduled to hold a work session at 6 p.m. June 22 to begin discussing possible rules and regulations for data centers. Fiscal officer and clerk of council Eunice Collene said the June 22 work session will be the village's first meeting to start the process of developing regulations for data centers. The village has a moratorium in place for one year while officials review and develop rules for data centers and cryptocurrency mining centers. The moratorium was adopted in March and remains in place until March 2027, unless council votes to change it earlier. Collene said the moratorium was intended to put rules and regulations in place before data center projects can move forward. The local discussion follows interest from Digital Decimal Currency LLC/Decimal Digital in developing a data center in Monroeville's Industrial Park. Village minutes from 2025 described the project as beginning with a 30-megawatt electric load, with the potential to grow to 100 megawatts. Officials also discussed the project as a potentially significant revenue source, with electric-related tax and service fee revenue that is tied to the electric load. Residents raised concerns The issue has also drawn questions from residents. At a public meeting in May, community members sought answers about the proposed project, including what it could mean for the village, what protections would be in placed and how the project would be regulated. Those questions have been shaped, in part, by Monroeville's prior experience with Gray Matter, a cryptocurrency mining operation that became the subject of legal and financial concerns tied to electric service. Village officials have discussed the need for safeguards, including deposits, collateral, front-end funding and other protections, so Monroeville is not left responsible for unpaid electric costs. At a prior Feb. 10 council meeting, village officials discussed the lack of specific local regulations for data centers. Council members then moved toward a moratorium to give the village time to study the issue before additional projects could be approved. The moratorium language was later revised to clearly include both data centers and cryptocurrency mining centers. Possible topics for future rules could include zoning, electric demand, noise setbacks, backup generators, water use, fire safety, financial guarantees and decommissioning requirements. The June 22 planning commission work session will be open to the public. Collene clarified that a separate public hearing scheduled for July 14 is not directly related to data centers. That hearing is for revisions to the village's zoning ordinance. "Nothing in there has anything to do yet with data centers," Collene said of the July 14 hearing. She said data centers are not yet included in the village zoning ordinance, which is why the June 22 planning commission work session is being hosted. Collene also said a council work session is expected for 6 p.m. June 30, with data centers anticipated to be a topic of discussion. As of her interview, that meeting had not yet been posted because the village is waiting on final wording and clarification. For now, the data center issues remain in the rule-writing stage. The upcoming meetings are expected to give officials and residents a chance to begin reviewing what local controls should be in place before data center or cryptocurrency mining projects are allowed to proceed.