Planning director: no applications yet; PUD route, utilities and TVA are key constraints

County Planning Director Doug DeMasi told the Property Management Committee his office has not received any inquiries to locate a data center in unincorporated Rutherford County and explained the county's existing land‑use path for such proposals.

DeMasi said the zoning ordinance contains no specific data‑center use; therefore, a developer would typically pursue a planned development (PUD) that creates a use narrowly tailored to the proposal. He noted utilities are a gating factor: "Some of the other impacts... electric is a big concern. Water, again, being a big concern..." and that for very large megawatt loads, TVA approval could be required. Regarding timeline he told commissioners that, even aggressively, "start to finish that process, I mean, aggressively, even you're looking at at least 6 months to a year for something like that."

DeMasi said planning staff has begun preliminary research and has met with Middle Tennessee Electric and CUD; he offered to provide a staff status report and a recommended path forward to the Public Works committee and the full commission in coming months. The presentation was offered as information; no ordinance, moratorium or binding deadline was adopted at this meeting.