The ordinance was proposed by Donald Kirkley, Chesterfield County Council member for District 5, and Derrick Outen, the County building codes director.

County Attorney Coleman Bryant said at the meeting, “In the reading of this ordinance, council members will show that the goal of this ordnance is to study the impacts of data centers, data processing facilities, cryptocurrency mining and any other use associated with data processing facilities on infrastructure and to review regulatory approaches adopted by other jurisdictions ... Following the completion of this initial study, County staff will make a presentation to Council talking about the positives and negatives about data centers, which we will invite the public to and discuss potential regulations.

“I think this is a good opportunity for us as a county,” Bryant said. “I think it’s the right thing to do."

Kirkley commented during the meeting, “I think we just need to slow down the process and figure out the risk, the problems, and find them out now, before we get ahead of ourselves. There are a lot of places in the state of South Carolina that have gotten ahead of themselves.”

He said the moratorium piggybacks off SC House of Representatives Bill 5286, which was introduced in February, adding, “They’re trying to pass it to the same date that we are, for the same reasons.”

Council member Ethan Foard, representing District 3, said at the meeting that there are no regulations on data centers because there is no clear definition of what a data center is. “This is something so new that we don’t know anything about,” he said.

In January, Marion County passed a resolution authorizing tax incentives for Stream Data Centers.