The hottest-button issue in Lyon County as of late is data centers.
On Sunday, dozens of people marched in protest of the planned Monarch Data Center north of Yerington.
One day later, county commissioners worked to create an ordinance that would regulate future developments.
Lyon County commissioners voted unanimously to tell staff to revise the existing draft to include issues brought up at Monday's workshop.
Among the chief concerns from the community are water usage and noise concerns.
Cindy Blagg lives right down the street from the planned data center on Penrose Lane.
"I have hayfields around me. Two little mountain ranges, and it's gorgeous,” she says. “I do not want to look at lights at night. I do not want to hear the noise. We live in the country because that's what we prefer."
The ordinance would set noise limits at existing industrial standards - 65 A-weighted decibels (dB (A)) at the property line during the day, and 60 at night.
As far as water usage, the original language prohibited forms of cooling that consume water, such as evaporative systems. But commissioner John Cassinelli felt that definition was too broad.
“Some of these data centers have humidifiers,” he says, “which would be considered evaporative though they don't use a lot of water."
The ordinance also says buildings must be 150 feet back from residential areas, but commissioner Dave Hockaday says that's not enough, and so do many members of the community.
“I definitely think we should at a minimum double, maybe even triple that so residential areas aren't inundated with noise and other problems,” Hockaday says.
Hockaday proposed increasing the minimum to 300 feet with the support of other commissioners. Commissioner Tammy Hendrix proposed basing the setback distance on the building’s height.
As for the Monarch Data Center, this ordinance would not apply to it since the application process has already started.
The county commission will vote on Thursday whether to approve that data center.
