Lake County pauses accepting data‑center applications for 90 days to develop CUP rules

The Lake County Board of County Commissioners voted 5‑0 to suspend acceptance of new development applications for data centers and related utilities for 90 days, directing staff to draft a conditional‑use permit process and a definition of what constitutes a data center. The county attorney said the ordinance will be recorded as 2026‑43 if approved and that the change reduces an earlier proposed 1‑year suspension to 90 days while staff prepares thresholds and public‑review criteria.

Several commissioners emphasized the need to define data centers by objective measures such as electricity load or water use so that a CUP process can evaluate potential impacts. "There still hasn't been a delineation of what exactly is a data center. I hope that we can come up with the definition of a data center," one commissioner said, and others noted concerns about water and power consumption and preserving local control to deny proposals that do not meet community standards.