Glossary

Plain-language meanings of the zoning terms used on this site. On each entry’s details, these terms also open a short definition when you hover over, tap, or tab to them.

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Ways a Data Center Can Be Approved

How an ordinance lets a data center in, from the least review to the most.

Permitted by Right: A use that is allowed without a hearing, as long as the project meets the written standards in the ordinance.
Conditional Use: A use the zoning ordinance allows in a district only after the approving authority named in the ordinance holds a hearing and approves it under the written standards. The approving authority may be the county commission, the city council, a planning commission, or a board of adjustment. Approval takes a majority of the members present and voting.
Variance: Permission from the board of adjustment to depart from a zoning requirement because of a hardship unique to the property. In a county, a variance needs a two-thirds vote of the board.

Changing the Rules

The steps a county, city, or town takes to add or change data center rules.

Zoning Amendment: A change to the text of the zoning ordinance or to the zoning map. It follows the same hearing and vote steps as a new ordinance.
Rezoning: Changing the zoning district of particular parcels on the zoning map, for example from agricultural to industrial.
Public Hearing: A meeting advertised in advance where anyone may speak or submit comments before officials decide. South Dakota law requires at least one, with notice published at least 10 days ahead, before a zoning ordinance is adopted.
First Reading: The first time a governing body formally takes up a proposed ordinance. The final vote usually comes at the second reading, at a later meeting.
Temporary Zoning Ordinance: An emergency zoning measure that a county or city may adopt while it studies an issue. It requires a public hearing first, lasts up to one year, and may be renewed once, for no more than two years in all.
Moratorium: A temporary hold on accepting or approving certain applications while the county or city writes new rules. In South Dakota it is usually adopted as a temporary zoning ordinance.
Referendum: A public vote on an ordinance the governing body has adopted. Voters force one by turning in a petition signed by five percent of registered voters within 20 days after the ordinance is published.
Initiative: An ordinance proposed by voters. A petition signed by five percent of registered voters sends it to the governing body and then to a public vote.

Boards and Plans

The bodies and documents that shape local land use decisions.

Planning Commission: An appointed body that holds hearings on proposed zoning changes and recommends what the elected governing body should do. It does not adopt ordinances.
Board of Adjustment: The board that decides variances and appeals of the zoning official's decisions, after a public hearing. In many South Dakota counties the county commissioners serve as the board of adjustment.
Comprehensive Plan: A county's or city's long-range plan for land use. Zoning is supposed to carry out the plan, but the plan itself does not regulate any property.
Joint Jurisdiction: An area outside a city, up to six miles from the city limits, where the city and the county plan and zone together under a shared comprehensive plan.
Overlay District: An area drawn on top of the regular zoning map that adds rules for one kind of use, such as data centers, only on the mapped parcels.

Standards in an Ordinance

Terms that appear in the protections an ordinance sets.

Setback: The minimum distance a building or piece of equipment must be from a property line, a home, or another feature.
dBA: A measure of sound level weighted to match how people hear. Lower numbers are quieter; a 10 dBA increase sounds about twice as loud.
dBC: A measure of sound level that gives more weight to low-frequency sound, such as the hum of cooling equipment, which dBA limits can miss.
Decommissioning: Removing a facility and restoring the site when it closes. A decommissioning bond is money the owner sets aside so the county or city can do the work if the owner does not.
Battery Energy Storage System: Large batteries that store electricity on site, often used for backup power at data centers.
Sensitive Receptor: A place where people are especially affected by noise or pollution, such as a home, school, hospital, nursing home, park, or place of worship. Ordinances often measure setbacks and noise limits from the nearest sensitive receptor.
Tier 4: The strictest federal emission standard for new diesel engines, including backup generators. Tier 4 engines release far less soot and nitrogen oxides than older engines.
Closed-Loop Cooling: A cooling system that circulates the same water or coolant in sealed pipes and needs only small top-ups, instead of drawing large amounts of water and evaporating it.
Hyperscale Data Center: A very large data center. There is no single legal definition, so each ordinance sets its own line, by building size, electrical demand in megawatts, or water use.
Megawatt: A measure of electrical demand. South Dakota Senate Bill 135 applies its electricity and water rules to data centers with a peak demand of 10 megawatts or more.

Rights, Records, and Appeals

How residents get information and challenge decisions.

Public Records Request: A request for government records under South Dakota's public records law, SDCL chapter 1-27. It starts with an informal request to the office that keeps the record. If that is denied, a written request goes to the public record officer, who must answer within 10 business days, and a denial can be challenged in circuit court or before the Office of Hearing Examiners.
Nondisclosure Agreement: An agreement in which officials promise to keep information about a project, such as the developer's or end user's name, confidential. Some ordinances require that any such agreement be disclosed to the public.
Writ of Certiorari: The court process used to challenge a board of adjustment decision or a conditional use permit decision. For a county board of adjustment, the petition must be filed in circuit court within 30 days after the decision is filed.