Jay Bowman proposes green rules for Lexington data centers

Independent Kentucky congressional candidate Jay Bowman urged the Lexington Planning Commission to tie data center zoning to power demand, not building size, during a July 30 hearing. Bowman said the approach would help protect local water, land and electric grid capacity as data center projects expand in Fayette County.

Why it matters: - Data centers can strain local power grids, water supplies and land use even when the buildings themselves are relatively small. - Bowman’s proposal would shift Lexington zoning toward infrastructure impacts, not just square footage, if the commission adopts it. - The pitch tries to make large-scale tech development pay for its own energy and cooling needs instead of leaning on public systems.

What happened: - Jay Bowman, an independent candidate for Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District, spoke at a July 30 public hearing on text amendment PLN-ZOTA-26-00008. - Bowman asked the Lexington Planning Commission to regulate data center projects based on electricity demand rather than physical size. - Bowman also urged a fast-track permitting path for developers that agree to use off-site solar, battery storage, closed-loop cooling and community approval. - The remarks came as Lexington weighs how to handle data center zoning in Fayette County.

The details: - Bowman described the commission’s job as difficult and argued that square-footage rules do not capture the true infrastructure burden of modern data facilities. - Bowman proposed that developers secure 100% of their electricity from newly developed regional off-site solar through power purchase agreements. - Bowman said facilities should add industrial battery storage to store daytime solar power and avoid nighttime reliance on local fossil-fuel peaking plants. - Bowman proposed closed-loop liquid cooling systems that recycle cooling liquid indefinitely and reduce water use compared with evaporative cooling. - Bowman said fast-track priority should remain contingent on local neighborhood review and community consent. - Bowman’s filing said facilities under 50,000 square feet can cost $30 million to $100 million to build. - Bowman said a facility of that size can draw continuous power measured in megawatts. - Bowman said offsetting that demand would require 100 to 250 acres of utility-scale solar panels. - Bowman said a 50,000-square-foot building sits on just over one acre, leaving rooftop solar unable to meet the power demand. - Bowman said standard evaporative cooling systems can use up to 300,000 gallons of potable water per day on-site. - Bowman said that volume is equivalent to more than 1,000 residential households. - Bowman said grid power also drives regional coal plants to consume about 19,185 gallons of water per megawatt-hour generated. - Bowman said the needed solar, storage and plumbing investment would run about $35 million to $85 million and is viable for multi-million-dollar tech firms at that scale.

Between the lines: - The proposal is both an environmental argument and a land-use strategy. - Bowman is framing data centers as a private infrastructure burden that should be fully self-contained before local approval moves forward. - The plan also tries to make approval politically easier by tying it to neighborhood consent. - Bowman’s use of power, water and solar numbers is meant to show that small buildings can still create outsized utility demand.

What's next: - The Lexington Planning Commission will continue reviewing the text amendment and any data center zoning changes that follow. - Developers seeking local approval would likely need to show how they would meet the proposed power, cooling and community-review standards. - Bowman will continue campaigning for Kentucky’s 6th District while pressing the commission on the issue.

The bottom line: - Bowman wants Lexington to treat data centers as power-intensive infrastructure first and buildings second.