Sedgwick County extends moratorium on data centers into the summer

A moratorium on data centers in Sedgwick County has been extended to June 11, or whenever the county crafts policy regulating them.

The existing 90-day pause was set to end on April 17.

“I just wanted to reiterate that this process will not be rushed. However, I don’t want to delay it either,” County Commissioner Stephanie Wise said. Wise represents the area where land is being bought by technology companies, potentially for data centers.

The county does not have any regulations for data centers, which was cited as one of the reasons for the pause.

County staff and consultants are researching the issue with the intent of crafting policies and regulations for the centers.

The extension comes as the county is preparing at least two town halls on the issue, including a listening session at 6 p.m. March 12 and a presentation by the planning department on zoning on March 31.

The county said it wants to extend the pause to consider feedback given during these events.

Several people attended the commission meeting to encourage commissioners to extend the pause. That included Mike Betzen of Colwich, who referenced Tuesday’s failed city sales tax vote as a rushed process.

“Take your time. We got to get better transparency,” Betzen told commissioners. “If you want a good example of that, look at yesterday’s vote for the tax in Wichita, 82 to 18. What was really coming out of that was, you’re going too fast, you’re not sharing enough information with us, and we don’t trust you.”