‘Time is of the essence.’ De Soto wants new rules to regulate data center noise
As one developer kicked off a massive data center development and another potentially on the horizon, De Soto city officials promised residents they would look at new rules to regulate the noise that can come from the 24/7 operators.
The city took its first step toward potential new regulations on Thursday night by sending out requests for an independent consultant to evaluate current rules and determine whether it adequately addresses industrial noise ordinances, like data centers.
“Rather than pursue ordinance amendments immediately, the City Council directed staff to obtain an independent technical evaluation to determine whether changes are warranted,” the staff report stated.
However, some council members expressed concerns regarding the proposed timeline of the study, with a final report not scheduled to come before the City Council until next April as one developer already began construction.
Residents want data center regulations
There are two data centers either coming, or looking to come to De Soto. San Francisco-based Beale Infrastructure recently broke ground on a $3 billion four building campus that will be nearly 3 million square feet when completed.
Digital Realty, the world’s largest data center, recently bought land in De Soto’s Ad Astra Enterprise Park — near the Panasonic Electric Vehicle Battery Plant — with hopes to build a nine-building data center campus on 1,400 acres. The City Council hadn’t issued approvals for the project as of July 16.
De Soto residents have been pushing back on the industrial activity coming to their community and have urged council members to put measures in place to protect the city from potential environmental and health impacts.
In particular, residents have shared concerns in several City Council meetings about the impact data centers’ lower noise levels can have on human health. According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, the constant noise and low frequency sounds can cause sleep deprivation, increased stress and behavioral issues.
“The proposed data centers (can) create an intense amount of infrasonic sound that you can’t hear, but feel,” De Soto resident Chad Ostermann said during public comment. “These sounds have been measured elsewhere. It doesn’t mean it’s not a risk here, it means we haven’t checked.”
Expedited process
As approved, the request for an independent consultant is scheduled to go out on Aug. 3, with responses due by Aug. 23.
The city would form a committee to review the responses from Aug. 24 to Sept. 11, with interviews scheduled to happen starting Sept. 14. The city anticipates awarding the contract in the first week of October with the final study and report completed by next April.
Recognizing “time is of the essence,” Mayor Rick Walker asked if the city could expedite the approval process in any way.
Assistant City Administrator Brandon Mills said staff will work with the consultants to put together the schedule and expressed that the city wants the process expedited as much as possible.
While construction is underway for one of the data center projects, the city can impose new rules within the city code — like the noise ordinance — at any time and businesses would have to comply, no matter the construction timeline, City Attorney Patrick Reavey told council members.
