Data centers in Jefferson County, Kentucky: 1 project mapped

The fight then moved to the whole county. In August 2026 Dermody Properties filed to convert a 350,000-square-foot warehouse on Kramers Lane into a data center. District 1 council member Tammy Hawkins accused it of trying to "backdoor" the plan ahead of a pause. On August 13 the Metro Council voted 24-1 for a moratorium on new data center approvals, including conversions of existing buildings; it runs six months, into February, or until the council adopts zoning rules. Mayor Craig Greenberg, who had welcomed the Camp Ground project, endorsed the pause as public pressure grew.

The rules now before the council, recommended by the Planning Commission, would ban data centers larger than 500,000 square feet; smaller ones would need rezoning, closed-loop water cooling and a quarter-mile buffer from schools, community centers and other data centers. A city survey of about 3,600 people found most wanted data centers banned outright, and Hawkins has asked whether the council can simply do that; an assistant county attorney said it could, if it can show a rational basis. The council's zoning committee began debating the rules on September 15 and was due to take it up again about two weeks later; no vote has been scheduled.

Power is the other thread. In October 2025 the state Public Service Commission let LG&E and Kentucky Utilities spend $3 billion on two new gas plants, one of them in Louisville, mostly to serve an expected 1,470 megawatts of data center load growth, and warned the utilities not to build them if that demand doesn't materialize. The Sierra Club's Elisa Owen said the commission had "rubber-stamped" a plan that puts "speculative data centers" ahead of residents. Kentucky has also created a 50-year property tax exemption for data centers in Jefferson County.