Mercer County Residents Ask For Data Center Moratorium
The Harrodsburg Herald/Robert Moore
The Harrodsburg-Mercer County Joint Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing on Tuesday, April 28, to gather community input on proposed text amendments to local zoning ordinances regarding data centers.
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
[email protected]
The Harrodsburg-Mercer County Joint Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing on Tuesday, April 28, at Campbellsville University Gymnasium to get the community’s input on proposed text amendments to the City of Harrodsburg and Mercer County zoning ordinances concerning data centers. And the community’s input, at least those who spoke at last Tuesday’s meeting, was that Mercer County needed a moratorium on data centers.
Attorney W. Henry Graddy of W.H. Graddy and Associates in Versailles said the proposed ordinance—which allows data center facilities within the county’s IT zoning district—needed further revision because the planning and zoning commission hadn’t gone through the comprehensive planning process first.
“This is terrible planning,” said Graddy, who represents the coalition “We Are Mercer County.” Many of the speakers and audience members on Tuesday night wore blue “We Are Mercer County” T-shirts. Graddy said the planning commission was “attempting to zone without planning.”
Under the proposal, only 1,500 acres across the county could be used for data center construction, and facilities must be at least 750 feet from residential areas.
“Please remove this section entirely,” Graddy said.
In 2019, Graddy represented a group of citizens who sued to stop the construction of a Dollar General store near Herrington Lake. That Dollar General opened in June of last year.
“I urge you to go back to the drawing board,” Graddy told the planning and zoning commission. “This county wants you to take the time and do it right.”
Concern over data centers has exploded locally since residents became aware of a LinkedIn post from Sean Reynolds, senior managing director at JLL Data Center Services, advertising a 555-acre data center development in Mercer County more than eight months ago. In December, the planning and zoning commission hired a consultant, Curry Roberts of Parkway Strategies, to provide guidance on how best to proceed with the possible development 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. There are currently 40 data centers serving nine markets in Kentucky, according to datacentermap.com, including three new ones that have come online since December 2025.
Anyone in the government who votes for the datacenter needs to be voted out. The only real thing they are looking at is a money grab in taxes. That is if they haven’t already promised tax incentives that will be passed on to the rest of the counties population to cover. The precedent came with the solar field and industrial park.