It looks like our corrupt city council is feeling the heat and trying to appease residents resisting the onslaught of data center projects in the pipeline. I find the article interesting for the commercial entities complaining about the noise restrictions, seemingly disrespectful for the quality of life of residents around their facilities. I’ve seen reports around the country of people living near these facilities, and some are quite bad, with badly engineered cooling systems, especially the Bitcoin mining operations that rely on moving massive amounts of air. So lets see what they actually end up passing.
Proposed code changes would set strict 40- to 45-decibel thresholds near residential neighborhoods at night, prompting pushback from local data center companies.
By Garrett Grochowski
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The Cheyenne City Council voted Monday to advance a series of Unified Development Code amendments that, alongside setting other standards, establish strict noise limits for industrial projects in town. Councilmembers heard arguments from both the changes’ opponents, who called the standards “ludicrous” and harsh, and proponents, who pointed out the negative health effects that constant noise can cause.
The council heard the proposed changes, lumped together into a single city ordinance, on their second round through the council, meaning they will still need to be read another time by the city’s Public Services Committee and return to the council in two weeks before they are fully approved. The committee, as well as the Cheyenne Planning Commission, voted to support the changes in previous weeks.
Conversations about the ordinance, which also prohibits city officials from signing nondisclosure agreements and sets regulations for nuisances at large construction sites, centered specifically around noise.
Under the proposed changes, large industrial sites would have to adhere to strict noise standards. As recorded at the property line, a site cannot produce more than 65 decibels of constant noise during the day and 60 at night in non-residential areas and 45 decibels during the day and 40 decibels at night near homes.
“To bring that down to a lower level — excuse the term — but it’s ludicrous,” Paul Steed, project manager at local contractor Mechanical Systems, told the council.
He said that a change of that magnitude, while intended to limit concerns Cheyenne residents have about living near data centers, puts all local businesses — especially construction companies — in danger.
“It would greatly limit my livelihood,” he said. “There would have to be measures taken that would be very expensive to develop in Cheyenne, particularly subdivisions next to residential. I’ll have to put up sound walls or whatever else you’d have to do to limit the noise that reaches local residents.”
He said he understands that locals are concerned about light pollution, dust and the other potential drawbacks of living next to large industrial sites and construction zones. To limit nighttime noise levels to 40 decibels would be a step too far, though, he said, noting that that’s how much sound a home refrigerator makes.
A Decibel Level Comparison Chart published by Yale Environmental Health and Safety places a refrigerator at an adjusted decibel level of 55, while a nighttime suburb registers at 40 and normal conversation sits in the 60- to 70-decibel range. The chart adds that hearing loss becomes a concern with sustained adjusted decibel levels over 80 — equivalent to a dial tone or busy traffic. A similar chart from the American Academy of Audiology places the threshold for hearing damage slightly higher, recommending hearing protection for sounds at or above 85 decibels.
Representatives from multiple data centers as well as Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development firm that has facilitated the city’s recent industrial growth, also spoke against raising noise standards. They argued that the World Health Organization noise guidelines that the proposed limits follow are supposed to be measured from where people may actually be listening from rather than at property lines and that enforcing stricter noise limits may put areas in Cheyenne that people wouldn’t have expected in violation of city code.
“If true, that would present significant enforcement challenges for the city and have severe unintended consequences,” Chris Tetlow, Microsoft’s Cheyenne metro director, told the council.
Representatives from Related Digital said that their data center project was approved under existing city code, which permits noise levels of 65–70 decibels. If they expand their footprint, they asked, will the city still allow them to follow those old standards? City staff later clarified that Related Digital’s project, which isn’t near any homes, would remain in compliance.
Some members of the public, meanwhile, celebrated the proposed change. Property values and public health would both benefit from higher standards, they said.
Wendy Volk, a local real estate professional and activist, said that less restrictive noise limits don’t prevent expensive fixes, but instead cause them. She told the council about a property she was involved in near Campstool Road. A bitcoin mining operation produces constant noise, which sound walls attempted to mitigate.
“The installation of large sound mitigation walls has subsequently created additional concerns about appearance, architectural standards and impacts on neighboring commercial properties,” she said. “A solution to industrial noise should not create another problem for neighboring property owners. This experience demonstrates why noise impacts and mitigation measures need to be addressed before construction begins.”
Others spoke to the potential physical and psychological harms of constant noise. That noise, they said, usually stops at night when cars stop driving and the hustle and bustle of city life slows down. What doesn’t slow down, they said, are data centers.
“The great minds that run these data centers should be able to find a way to lessen their impact on our community,” Lori Wayne Chesnut, a Cheyenne resident, said. “They successfully did this with water consumption using closed-loop systems for cooling. They can do the same with the noise that they produce. Our health should be important to you.”
The council ultimately advanced the ordinance, sending it back to the Public Services Committee, when councilmembers can take a deeper look with staff into the proposed changes.