Data center development
How to handle data center development has become a top issue in the Boone County commission race. Candidates warn of a legal loophole: because utility projects count as a public use, new transmission lines or pipelines serving a data center could be routed across private land through eminent domain even when the data center itself could not be built there. The debate collides with the county's broader fights over growth, farmland preservation and property rights.
Should Boone County welcome or restrict new data center development?
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Sources
County commissioner candidate Froelich — https://www.wvxu.org/local-news/2026-09-23/data-centers-property-rights-transparency-nky-county-commissioner-candidates-debate-top-issues
The loophole there is that because utility projects count as public use, new transmission lines or pipelines to serve a data center could go through private land... Even when that data center itself couldn't.
Positions on this issue · liberal → conservative
- Ban the construction of new data centers in Boone County to protect farmland, neighborhoods and the power grid.
- Allow data centers only under strict limits on location, energy and water use, and bar eminent domain to serve them.
- Permit data centers in designated industrial areas with negotiated community and infrastructure protections.
- Welcome data centers as economic development subject to standard zoning review and minimal new restrictions.
- Actively recruit data centers with tax incentives and fast-tracked approvals to bring jobs and investment.