Mason City, Michigan, voted yesterday to repeal a controversial ordinance regulating data centers in an attempt to make regulations stricter ahead of a potential project.

City authorities voted to approve ordinance 266 in February, which created a new zoning district that would have enabled the construction of data centers.

The so-called M-3 ‘Technology Innovation District’ was intended to “encourage uses particular to the district and designed in a manner that is consistent with the character of surrounding areas,” reads the ordinance.

The ordinance set out several requirements on visual impact mitigation, the placement of utilities equipment, noise levels, environmental standards, and others that any potential data center would have to abide by.

“The district is intended for areas which are primarily undeveloped and for uses with limited visits by the general public,” it continued.

But concern that these requirements were inadequate, anger over a perceived lack of public input and community review, and claims that the ordinance’s language was vague led activists to collect signatures for a referendum petition.

This succeeded, leaving the City Council with two options – to repeal the ordinance, or leave its fate with a general vote that would have taken place in August – of which it picked the former.

The city now has to decide whether to draft a new, stricter ordinance ahead of a potential application for a data center, according to a report.

The organizers of the referendum petition are also calling for a temporary moratorium on data center construction in and near the City of Mason for a half to one-year period, as per its website.

Mason is located south of Lansing, in central Michigan.

Michigan is one of the several US states currently considering whether to implement a state-wide data center moratorium, and House Bill 5594 – which would “prohibit certain authorizations for a data center” beginning from the effective date of the act and until April 1, 2027 – is currently in committee.