By Anelia K. Dimitrova
In response to vocal environmental and quality-of-life concerns expressed by community members during a March 25 P&Z meeting and afterwards, Cedar Falls Utilities and the City are planning to ask P&Z on Wednesday to designate as public the land it plans to acquire for a new plant at West Viking Road Industrial Park, according to documents included in the packet for the April 22 P&Z meeting.
This designation, if approved, would not allow the presence of businesses such as cryptocurrency mining operations, data centers or other commercial IT structures to lease any portion of the approximately 48 acres (including roughly 10 acres of land on which the CFU substation is located) of land.
The original request called for a zoning designation from light industrial to heavy industrial use. Had that come to fruition, the municipal utility would have been able to lease a portion of the property to such operations as cryptocurrency mining, for instance.
After vigorous public opposition, including correspondence from community members to the city, which is included in the packet for the April 22 meeting, CFU is planning to withdraw its initial request for heavy industrial use designation and ask the commission to consider the new request for public land use designation instead.
“CFU is no longer interested in allowing cryptocurrency mining on the site proposed for rezoning, so has requested to withdraw the rezoning to M-2 and instead has requested rezoning the property to P-Public Zoning District,” a document included in the packet for the meeting says.
The Future Land Use Map would also have to be amended, if the rezoning were allowed, according to the packet.
What Public Land Use District means as described in the packet
After public opposition to the proposed zoning, representatives of the city and CFU met to discuss options, according to the April 22 P&Z packet.
Public land use, which was briefly mentioned during the March 25 meeting, but not discussed at length as it was not on the agenda, was eventually deemed fitting, hence the new CFU rezoning request.
The memo included in the agenda for the April 22 meeting explains public use like this:
“The P, Public Zoning District is reserved exclusively for structures and uses of land owned by the Federal government, the State, the County, the City, and the Cedar Falls Community School District,” the document reads. “As an industrial scale use, it is appropriate to locate the power generation plant within the industrial park. While there are not any specific zoning standards listed in the Public Zoning District, the Deed of Dedication recorded with the West Viking Road Industrial Park subdivision will still apply and establishes standards and requirements for lighting, landscaping, setbacks, and architectural standards. These are the same standards that apply to all the uses within the industrial park.”
Susan Abernathy, CFU’s CEO, in a letter to the P&Z commissioners, which is included in the packet, described the public land use thusly:
“Under this zoning classification, cryptocurrency mining, data centers, and other private IT infrastructure would not be permitted on this property,” she wrote.
Included in the April 22 meeting: Zoning requests for new power plant, updated cryptocurrency mining rules
During an initial discussion, the two CFU requests for rezoning will be addressed. First the new rezoning request for 48,37 acres on the West Viking Road Industrial Park from M-1-P, or planned light industrial district, to P-Public and the associated land use map amendment, will be introduced. They will then set a public hearing on that request for May 13.
Then the master plan amendment will be introduced.
Under old business, a public hearing will be held regarding the initial rezoning request from M-1-P Planned Light Industrial District to M-2 Heavy Industrial District.
Also, the commission will consider a request from CFU and the city for the withdrawal of that initial rezoning petition.
Further, during the April 22 meeting, there will also be a public hearing regarding cryptocurrency mining rules.
That draft was created because a local cryptocurrency mining operation approached the city with plans for expansion and since there are no rules for cryptocurrency mining in the city zoning code, a consultant hired by the city drafted a set of rules based on research.
The agenda packet contains a revised version of the first draft of cryptocurrency mining rules, which incorporates some of the suggestions and concerns expressed during the March 25 meeting.
The rules are now under a heading called “Cryptocurrency Mining; Utilities and Public Facilities.”
Of note here is a provision that would “require a verification from CFU about the availability of essential services, including but not limited to electricity, water, and gas.”
An explicit text in the ordinance regarding CFU verification would “help prevent conversion of cryptocurrency mining operations to a data center because a data center use will require consistent ‘firm’ power that is uninterruptible,” according to the document.
It further states that “CFU has indicated that they are not supportive of allowing large data centers as the power required would likely exceed their capacity and make it difficult to serve their constituents, including both residential customers and business and industrial customers.”
That discussion is expected to be continued during the May 13 meeting of the commission.
The agenda for the meeting and the packet were posted on Friday on the city’s website.