STARKVILLE – To the delight of a standing-room only crowd at City Hall on Tuesday, the Planning and Zoning Commission denied a special use exemption that would have allowed for a bitcoin mining facility to operate on Industrial Park Road.
The commission rejected the bid, agreeing with City Planner Daniel Havelin and Assistant City Planner Lyle MeCaskey’s recommendation due to project representatives’ inability to address unknowns, missing information from the application and public outcry in opposition to the project.
“I’ve never had an applicant that had such a contentious issue be so unprepared,” Jeremiah Dumas, Ward 6 commissioner, told The Dispatch after the meeting. “…You’re talking about a multimillion-dollar thing that people generally don’t like anyway. You would think they would come in there prepared but, no, not at all.”
The proposed bitcoin mining facility needs a special exemption to develop on 407 Industrial Park Road under Starkville’s Unified Development Code even though the area is zoned for industrial use because this type of facility is not specifically identified in the UDC. Coopers Land LLC applied for special use permission on behalf of the project and the three other companies listed for the project: Aspire Property Inc, Bitdeers Technologies Group and Starkville Energy LLC.
Mandy Jiang, the project representative from Starkville Energy LLC, told The Dispatch she was not aware until Tuesday afternoon that the application was lacking critical information. Jiang said this was the group’s first time applying for a special exemption, which led to the issues with the application.
Havelin and MeCaskey wrote a staff report recommending rejecting the exemption due to missing information regarding the site’s water and wastewater needs, employment, flood planning and environmental review.
Jiang spoke at the meeting to try and alleviate concerns about utility usage, economic benefit and noise pollution.
Jiang explained the center’s cooling system would require up to 50 gallons of water per minute, which would fill an Olympic-size swimming pool every nine days. The facility would require little to no water in cooler months but anticipates pulling 73,000 gallons a day at its peak, Jiang said.
Starkville Utilities manager Edward Kemp told the commission that, if approved, the site would not be on an open water meter and would account for only 1% of Starkville Utilities’ water sales. Kemp noted the proposed water usage is comparable to similar industrial uses in the city, with at least one unnamed manufacturer currently using between 50,000 and 75,000 gallons a day.
Kemp and Josh Wotten, a representative from the Tennessee Valley Authority, said the proposed facility would not represent a burden to Starville Utilities’ electrical grid or TVA’s distribution grid broadly.
Jiang said the facility would have a positive economic impact on the city through its yearly tax contributions and contractor employment during construction. The facility would be operated by a small team of six to seven employees, who would come in from out of town for a week at a time to manage it, Jiang told The Dispatch.
Jiang also tried to dissuade concerns surrounding the site’s noise pollution by using a study conducted at its Puryear, Tennessee, facility, which is a comparable size, saying the sound produced is quieter than a dishwasher. The facility would also have a double wall barrier created by shipping containers to help dampen the sound, she told the commission.
Public concern
Residents formed a long line to voice similar concerns outlined by city officials against the project following Jiang’s presentation. Ten speakers were allowed to voice concerns before the committee closed public comments due to time constraints.
“With scarce job creation and no tangible goods or services being brought to the community in exchange for too many unknown elements whose damage can’t be properly assessed until it’s too late, I strongly urge the commission not to provide this exemption,” said Karen Snyder, a Ward 3 resident. “And to be optimistic that a fast-growing town like ours will have offers from other companies with tangible benefits without these unknowns.”
