Planning Commission Hires Data Center Consultant
Photo: 123 Net via Wikimedia Commons
A picture of a 123Net Datacenter walkway in Southfield, Michigan, taken in November 2011.
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
[email protected]
The Harrodsburg-Mercer County Joint Planning and Zoning Commission has hired a consultant to deal with the possibility of a large-scale data center in Mercer County.
Last week, the commission hired Curry Roberts of Parkway Strategies to help the agency prepare for the possibility of someone trying to locate a data center in the community.
There are currently 37 data centers serving nine markets in Kentucky, according to datacentermap.com. The planning and zoning commission is concerned about the possibility of a hyper-scale data center, a specialized facility with a footprint of 10,000 square feet or more that can house more than 5,000 servers. In March 2025, the Kentucky General Assembly enacted legislation giving massive tax breaks to data centers. There has also been local opposition to proposed projects in Oldham, Simpson and Meade counties.
At their regular meeting on Friday, Dec. 5, Bobby Upchurch, chairman of the planning and zoning commission, called hyper-scale data centers different from what the commissioners considered normal industrial usage.
“We have no knowledge or expertise in that matter,” Upchurch said.
The construction of hyper-scale data centers is booming in rural America, as companies rush to “cash in on the AI craze,” according to CNBC.com. Earlier this year, Google raised its capital expenditures forecast, saying it expected to spend up to $93 billion in 2025, followed by a “significant increase” next year. According to CNBC, Microsoft said it was investing a minimum of $94 billion in similar expansion during the 2026 financial year.
“There may be a request for our community sooner rather than later,” Upchurch said Friday.
He said the planning and zoning commission would like to work with a consultant to draft zoning regulations for submission to the county and city for their approval.
Upchurch said they had consulted with Greyson Evans, executive director of the Harrodsburg-Mercer County Industrial Development Authority. Evans supplied them with the names of two consultants. The planning and zoning commission issued a request for proposals to consultants and received one response from Curry Roberts of Parkway Strategies. Evans told the commission that Roberts has more experience than anyone in Kentucky.
The commission voted to grant Upchurch authority to hire a consultant to work 10 hours a week for six weeks at a cost of $15,000. Upchurch said the consultant would deliver a framework for any possible projects.
Commissioner Connie Allen asked whether Roberts would help with contracting later. Upchurch said the consultant would be available for consultation after the initial work was done.
Here in Mercer County, there has been local opposition to a 120-megawatt solar array KU intends to build at the Wilkinson Farm property along U.S. 127. That project, along with a 125-megawatt battery storage unit in Mercer County, was approved by the Kentucky Public Service Commission in 2023.
Unlike solar or wind farms, which generate energy, hyper-scale data centers consume massive amounts of power. Earlier this year, Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities requested the Kentucky Public Service Commission’s approval of a new tariff, according to Kentucky Public Radio. KU’s proposal would require any large data center customer to sign a 15-year contract guaranteeing it will pay for at least 80 percent of the energy it says it will consume each month, even if it ends up using less. Utility executives told Kentucky Public Radio the proposed tariff would ensure data companies pay their fair share and not stick existing customers with higher bills.
According to Kentucky Public Radio, the state legislature will also revisit the issue of hyper-scale data centers in its next session, beginning in 2026.
While the planning and zoning commission has not been approached about building a data center in Mercer County so far, Upchurch said the commission needed to be prepared.
“We need to be educated to know what questions to ask,” the chairman said Friday. The planning and zoning commission also voted to offer the administrative assistant position to Storrie Thompson at $18 an hour for 37 and a half hours a week with full benefits. If Thompson accepts the position, she would start work Jan. 5, 2026.
.jpg){kind=link}
I am a Mercer County resident writing to formally and unequivocally oppose the recruitment or development of a data center within our community.
Under KRS Chapter 100, planning and zoning authorities in Kentucky are charged with protecting the public health, safety, and general welfare of the citizens they serve. The pursuit of a data center—an industry well documented for its extreme demands on water, electricity, and infrastructure—raises serious concerns about whether those statutory obligations are being met.
Data centers consume enormous quantities of water for cooling, placing strain on local water districts governed under KRS Chapter 74, and increasing the likelihood of higher rates for residents. They also significantly increase electrical demand, which can lead to higher utility costs and infrastructure expansion paid for by the public, not the corporation. Communities in Tennessee and Ohio are already grappling with air quality concerns, excessive resource consumption, and long-term environmental impacts tied to these facilities.
Mercer County does not have an unlimited water supply, nor should its residents be expected to shoulder increased utility costs or environmental risk for private, out-of-state corporate profit. Once a data center is approved and built, the consequences are permanent.
The decision to spend $15,000 on a consultant to advance this effort—without robust public engagement—raises serious concerns about transparency and priorities. Those funds could have been directed toward infrastructure improvements, sustainability initiatives, or services that directly benefit the citizens of this community.
Kentucky law is clear that land-use planning should be deliberate, transparent, and guided by the long-term interests of residents, not rushed economic promises. If economic development is the goal, investments in renewable energy, such as solar infrastructure, would better align with environmental stewardship, responsible growth, and the future of Mercer County.
I respectfully urge the City Commissioners and the Planning Commission to pause this process, hold well-publicized public meetings, and allow meaningful community input before any further steps are taken. This is not a decision that should be made without broad public consent.
We elect our local officials to protect our resources, our health, and our quality of life. I expect that duty to be upheld.
Respectfully,
A Concerned Mercer County Resident
I understand that after being built these data centers employ very few people – less than ten. If legislation is passed that a data center will have to pay 80% of their projected energy cost/usage for 15 years 1. who pays the other 20%? and 2. What will they pay after the 15 years? I hope these costs are not passed off to the taxpayers. Every day I read about people who in these winter months can’t pay their energy bills and have their utilities turned off. These data centers should be required to produce their own energy not feed off the public’s supply. One final issue is the eyesore they add to the landscape destroying the natural beauty of our unique Bluegrass county.
The numbers in this article are off by a factor of 10 or more. The commission specifically referred to HYPER-scale data centers, which are 100,000 square feet, not 10,000. And the datacenters being built now are primarily for AI, which uses up to 20 times as much power and cooling water as a standard center. An AI datacenter that size would easily consume 100 megawatt-hours a day, nearly as much as the rest of Harrodsburg! Our entire national grid is already strained, adding this much use will require more solar farms, more natural gas peaking plants, or more nuclear power. All of which will contribute to even further industrialization of farmland, and more deterioration of our communities! All for some “better” web searches, and maybe 20 permanent jobs?
Hi, I’m a Mercer county citizen and Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, equivalent to the water use of a town populated by 10,000 to 50,000 people. We do not have those resources, these data centers will tap into all the freshwater sources and steal from our communities. Larger data centers can each “drink” up to 5 million gallons per day, or about 1.8 billion annually.
As a citizen in my community I definitely vote against this.
We already are being impacted by just the proposed data center. Our home is in the process of being sold When buyers hear about this proposed data center they have backed away from putting a contract on our home This is manifest injustice. I feel if Commissioners want to approve this they should be required to buy any and all property that homeowners want to sell at full value plus min. 10 percent . I’m very angry as we live in Burgin and we pay more taxes here than the rest of Harrodsburg. Also, why not put this in area near commissioners homes and I would bet it wouldn’t get approved. Seriously, put it as close to a commissioner’s house as possible! I’m sure it would never be built