Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
Klickitat County Planning Director Scott Edelman presented a new idea for an interim ordinance on data centers at the commission meeting yesterday. He told commissioners that he’d heard at the planning commission meeting that some people thought planning was going to create a new zone for data centers, but, he said it was just the opposite:
“We are actually limiting it severely from what’s allowed now. Industrial data centers shall be prohibited on any parcel or conglomeration of parcels within one mile of a residentially-zoned area. That one mile rules out Dallesport. Prohibited on any parcel or conglomeration of parcels within 5 miles of an incorporated city. That rules out Goldendale. These aren’t intended to be long term; these are intended to be protections if one did happen to apply before we adopt our final ordinance.”
He added that a data center could apply to set up on farmland, but it would have to change the zone to do it, and that is a much harder task.
During the morning workshop, County Coroner Eric Anderson made an appearance. He’s been with the county for a year and a half. He told commissioners that a county of this size would be expected to have in the neighborhood of 80 cases annually requiring a coroner, but this year, he’s only had 48, with more than 70 percent due to natural causes, and only 8 requiring autopsies.
He noted the county has invested $150 in a portable fingerprint scanner and the Westlaw-affiliated database at $350 per month, and cited them as examples of cost-effective tools that improved identification and next-of-kin notification.
“We owe it to the decedent to really do a thorough investigation to make sure we’re getting it right as far as cause and manner of death. We owe that to them because they can’t speak for themselves.”
Commissioners that that kind of compassion, and the facts that they’ve had nothing but good feedback on him, was evidence that they’d picked the right person for the job.