A group of Mason residents will have to wait to hear if their effort to repeal a data center ordinance will appear on the ballot.
Mason City Council members passed the M-3 ordinance, meant to regulate potential data center developments through zoning and environmental rules, earlier this year.
It saw immense pushback, and community members organized to trigger a referendum on it.
The group wants to create a new ordinance that offers even more protections. They call the M-3 ordinance "dangerously inadequate."
In a meeting Monday night, the city council reviewed their petition which had more than 700 signatures on it.
During the meeting, residents said the M-3 ordinance did not sufficiently address concerns like lithium battery usage and noise pollution.
The ordinance would also allow data centers to be built in the community as a use by right, said Megan Short, a Mason area resident.
"That removes meaningful discretion over whether a project is appropriately sited," she said. "This is the most critical flaw in this ordinance. It's literally what we mean when we say this ordinance was a 'data center welcome mat.'"
Another resident, Patrick Lind, said Mayor Russell Whipple's previous comment—that the city could not outright restrict data center development in the same way they could not prohibit other forms of commerce like an ice cream shop—was "an unfair comparison."
"How about trying to compare a data center to a 300-acre industrial scrap yard or a solid fuel generation plant?" he said.
During the meeting, council members did not decide whether to repeal the ordinance themselves or allow citizens to vote on it, because they’re waiting on a legal opinion from the city attorney which could take a few weeks.
In an interview with WKAR News prior to the meeting, City Council member John Vercher said he helped to create the ordinance.
"What M-3 was really all about was strengthening those protections and putting an additional restriction specifically for this type of use and development," he said.
But this point, given its unpopularity, he said he thinks it should be repealed.
"I'm disappointed in the outcome, but I'm also a firm believer in the democratic process and the people have spoken," Vercher said.