Centre Wellington officially halts data centre development

ELORA – It’s official: data centre development in Centre Wellington is on hold for at least a year.

Township council passed an interim control bylaw on Sept. 28 prohibiting data centres within industrial zones for 12 months.

The bylaw followed an Aug. 24 vote directing staff to review municipal policy around data centres and to undertake a study.

The moratorium on data centre development can be extended an additional year.
Councillor Jennifer Adams said she hopes the province will put real rules on the books to guide municipalities.

Spur Innovation CEO Sharif Virani suggested the township test local policy “against a real building.”

“Make this site your case study,” he told council.

The Waterloo-based company is looking to build a 10-megawatt data centre at 865 Gartshore Street in Fergus, the former site of the Wolverine copper tubing manufacturing plant.

Elora resident Carolyn Sharp, who started a petition calling for a moratorium that has since garnered 2,400 signatures, spoke at the meeting about her concerns over noise, water protection and air quality.

“The Spur property directly borders residential areas and … it is a massive computing and power facility that requires continuous cooling and electrical infrastructure 24 hours a day,” she said.

Sharp argued the response to her petition “demonstrates the level of concern” in the community.

She suggested the township’s noise bylaw be amended to establish acceptable decibel limits and asked for independent air quality modeling.

Sharp added a “spill, system failure or groundwater contamination could have consequences beyond the property itself.”

Virani said the facility won’t be a “gigafactory,” only occupying roughly 5,000 square feet (3%) of the total 165,000-square-foot building. The remainder of the space, he said, would be used for testing agricultural robotics and food innovation.

The centre would have air-cooled racks that he described as high-density enclosures designed to house, power and cool computing hardware.

Virani said earlier in the year the company had planned to used a closed-loop, water-cooled system but told council those plans have changed.

He said the province’s guideline for noise to the nearest home is “45 decibels by day and 40 by night” and the company plans to adhere to that.

Resident Robert Berry also spoke, echoing Sharp’s concerns and asking council to ensure Spur isn’t a “fly-by-night operation.”

Councillor Lisa MacDonald questioned Spur’s timeline.

Virani didn’t know.

“There’s a lot of questions around financing, supply chain and various things that need to be done,” Virani said.

“It’s really something we got to consult with engineers and then again with our supply chain.”