Arkansas's Biggest County Passed Data Center Rules. Its Judge Vetoed Them.

Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde vetoed Ordinance 26-I-56B on Sept. 25, three days after the county's quorum court passed it 11-4. The ordinance would regulate what it calls high-intensity digital infrastructure in unincorporated Pulaski County, classify large data centers as heavy industrial uses, and route them through a conditional use permit process carrying performance standards, cost recovery, inspection, monitoring and decommissioning requirements.

Under the ordinance, an applicant files an electrical load analysis, water and wastewater plans, a land-use suitability study, a noise impact assessment and a decommissioning plan backed by financial assurance, and must show the project will not materially impair the utilities serving surrounding properties. It sets a 500-foot setback from residential property and lets the county attach project-specific limits on power draw, water use and noise, though it puts no fixed ceiling on either power or water. Hyde's veto letter listed five objections: unresolved questions about state law and existing property rights, appeal provisions he said must be brought into line with Arkansas law, the county's capacity to administer the system, financial consequences for future generations, and litigation risk he called substantial.

Arkansas law gives a county judge seven calendar days after passage to veto an ordinance, and gives the quorum court a single chance to override, at its next regular session, by an affirmative vote of three-fifths of the total membership. Pulaski County seats 15 justices of the peace, so an override takes nine votes. The ordinance passed with 11. The court meets the second and fourth Tuesday of each month, which puts the override attempt in October.

The project at the center of the dispute is AVAIO Digital's Leo campus near Wrightsville, announced in January. Arkansas Economic Development Commission figures put the site at 760 acres, with a $6 billion first phase and more than $21 billion through full development, 150 megawatts contracted from Entergy Arkansas, and up to a gigawatt anticipated as the campus grows. Construction was set to begin in the first quarter of 2026, the first 150 megawatts are scheduled to energize in the second quarter of 2027, and the developer projects more than 500 permanent operations jobs within five years. The quorum court declined to write AVAIO an exemption from the new rules.

For commercial electricians in central Arkansas, the scope of the work does not change. A gigawatt-class campus means medium-voltage feeders, substation and switchgear installation, generator paralleling, and years of rough-in no matter which ordinance governs it. What changes is sequencing and documentation. An electrical load analysis becomes a county submittal reviewed alongside zoning rather than a figure settled between developer and utility, and a conditional use permit hearing lands in front of the building permit. Contractors staffing this work would be hiring against a county board's calendar, not only a utility energization date.

For now Pulaski County has no data center ordinance, and no date certain for one.