On September 8, the Woodford County Fiscal Court unanimously approved an ordinance permanently prohibiting new data centers, landfills and large battery storage systems. WKYT reported that the action made Woodford the first Kentucky county to permanently ban data-center construction and that the ordinance was developed alongside the Versailles and Midway city councils.
The fuller reporting record comes from the Kentucky Lantern. A Kentucky Association of Counties spokesperson told the outlet that Woodford was the first county the organization was aware of to enact a permanent data-center ban, while Judge-Executive James Kay told the Lantern that no developer had pitched a specific Woodford County data-center proposal.
Kay said developers were scouting widely and that the fiscal court chose a permanent ban after hearing overwhelming opposition from residents. He also tied the decision to Woodford’s longstanding effort to protect agricultural land, including the Thoroughbred farms that make the county economically distinctive.
What the ordinance actually does
The measure prohibits new data centers, landfills and large battery storage systems. The Kentucky Lantern reported that large battery storage systems are often paired with hyperscale data centers, but the ordinance treats all three categories as prohibited uses.
Versailles had already adopted a temporary data-center moratorium in July. Woodford’s September action took a different route: instead of using a fixed pause to develop new rules, the fiscal court approved a permanent prohibition.
Kay framed the decision primarily as a land-preservation question. At the September 8 meeting, he described the county’s rolling pastures, historic farms and agriculture as part of the backbone of its economy.
In his subsequent interview with the Kentucky Lantern, Kay also explained why officials preferred a ban to a moratorium. He said the county did not want to write regulations and then find itself debating whether a developer had found a way around them.
The ordinance is permanent, but that does not mean it can never be revisited. Kay said the community could reconsider its rules in the future if data-center technology became more sustainable and less intrusive.
Where Woodford sits on the national map
Permanent bans are still a relatively small part of the national response to data-center expansion. The Kentucky Lantern, citing a National League of Cities tracker, reported that only about a dozen local governments had enacted permanent data-center bans in 2026, while many more communities had chosen temporary moratoria.
The Data Center Coalition has opposed that approach. Executive Vice President Dan Diorio told the Kentucky Lantern that communities should work with industry and other stakeholders on regulatory frameworks that address local needs without shutting out the economic benefits data centers can bring. He also said the industry is working to use water and energy responsibly.
Public resistance is nevertheless substantial. A 2026 Gallup poll summarized by 24/7 Wall St. found that 71% of Americans opposed construction of an AI data center in their local area.
The same article reported that a family in Mason County, Kentucky, turned down roughly $26 million for about half of its 1,200-acre farm from a prospective buyer seeking land for an AI data center.
An August report from Townhall, citing The Information, said more than 500 local jurisdictions had data-center bans in place nationwide. That broader tally should not be confused with the much smaller category of permanent countywide prohibitions represented by Woodford’s ordinance.
The Kentucky context Woodford is reacting to
Kentucky had not yet brought a hyperscale data center online as of early September. WKU Public Radio used Gallatin, Tennessee, just south of the Kentucky border, as a nearby example of what a large hyperscale campus can look like once it is operating.
Inside Kentucky, the proposed hyperscale project in Burgin, a small Mercer County community, has produced a highly contested local debate. Kay specifically pointed to that dispute in his Kentucky Lantern interview as the kind of conflict Woodford hoped to avoid by deciding its position before a proposal arrived.
Other Kentucky jurisdictions are choosing regulation rather than prohibition. The Louisville Planning Commission voted in early September to recommend stricter data-center rules to Metro Council, including a proposed prohibition on facilities larger than 500,000 square feet.
Woodford’s policy is therefore not evidence that Kentucky has settled on one statewide approach. It is one county choosing the strictest available option while other communities experiment with moratoria, zoning restrictions and project-by-project review.
What residents gain and give up
The immediate effect is straightforward: under the ordinance, a new data center cannot be developed in Woodford County under the current rules. For officials who view farmland preservation as a long-term economic priority, that removes one potential source of pressure on large agricultural tracts.
The other side of the decision is just as concrete. Woodford has also removed the possibility of evaluating a future data-center proposal for its construction activity, tax base or other project-specific economic benefits unless the fiscal court first changes the ordinance.
That makes the policy less a verdict on every possible data-center project than a decision about which risks and opportunities the county is willing to entertain right now. Other Kentucky communities are choosing to write detailed rules first; Woodford has chosen not to enter that negotiation under the current technology and development model.
What happens next
The ordinance is a permanent prohibition rather than a moratorium with an expiration date. Reversing course would require Woodford County to change its rules, something Kay has said could be reconsidered if the technology’s footprint changes substantially.
For now, Woodford holds a distinct place in Kentucky’s data-center debate. WKYT and the Kentucky Association of Counties’ statement to the Kentucky Lantern identify it as the first county in the state to permanently prohibit data-center construction.
The practical distinction is simple. Woodford did not pause applications while it waited to decide what rules a future developer would have to follow. It made the decision before a specific proposal arrived and wrote a permanent prohibition into county policy.