Murphy – If the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners takes any real action against noise from crypto mining operations, major lawsuits are likely to follow.
County attorney Darryl Brown warned of inevitable litigation as the board once again appeared to back away from the idea of passing any type of noise ordinance amendment.
The commissioners instead approved, by a 4-1 vote Monday night, allowing Brown to explore the possibility of a narrowly focused planning board that could give way to some type of land use ordinance aimed at crypto mining operations. Brown returned to the idea of a land use ordinance after consulting with an environmental attorney about a possible amendment to the current noise ordinance.
“I previously told this board, both publicly and privately, that the most effective legal method to quell the crypto mine noise is with a land use ordinance under chapter 160D of the general statutes,” Brown said. “The board had made it quite clear that this is not an option that it is willing to consider, as is its right to do so.
“From a legal standpoint, I would ask that you consider it again. Such does not have to be a slippery slope to zoning.”
Commissioner Gary “Hippie” Westmoreland was the lone holdout in the vote allowing Brown to explore the creation of a narrowly focused planning board.
In a separate vote, the board voted 3-2 against a separate motion by Commissioner Jan Griggs to establish an entirely different, nine-person planning committee that would have acted as a broader advisory group for the county. Chairman Dan Eichenbaum said he was “absolutely against” that type of planning committee.
“When you develop a planning board, a planning committee of this kind, you have established a permanent group of individuals who can then run around the county doing whatever they want to do, observing whatever they want, and coming back and deciding among themselves what it is they want to start making plans for,” Eichenbaum said. “I think that is a dangerous precedent to have, and I’m not in favor of doing that. ... Obviously they have no power to implement plans, but they still have the right to go around making plans.”
Commissioner Cal Stiles argued in favor of the committee, but caught himself in the middle of an unintended word choice.
“When you get a particular group like this together, they start looking at all the particular issues they see throughout the county. ... They’ll be able to zone in on … wrong word there … they’ll be able to zero in on these issues.”
In one of the lighter moments of the meeting, Eichenbaum seized on Stiles’ self-described “faux pas,” instead calling it a “Freudian slip.”
For now, residents living near one of the two unenclosed crypto mining operations owned by Ankr/Exponential Digital may be able to do little more than hope the company takes further measures to combat the noise issue itself. Ankr/Exponential Digital promised as much in a company statement provided by the board.
The release outlines additional steps being taken beyond the partial noise abatement wall recently constructed around the facility on Harshaw Road. Those steps are said to include a move toward smaller containers at the site and placing more sound-absorbing materials on the gate area.
Brown first recommended a land use ordinance in late January, during what was originally intended to be a hearing over a then-proposed noise ordinance. He said at the time that the noise featured penalties inadequate to deter corporations from offenses and had a variety of other problems.
The noise ordinance issue resurfaced in mid-April due to public pressure, and the board appeared to approve an amendment that was hastily-revamped during the course of a meeting. By the end of that session, though, they learned that an updated resolution could only pass on a first vote if that vote was unanimous. The board slowly backed away from that plan over the last several meetings.