# Conditional Use Permit (CUP) A **Conditional Use Permit (CUP)** is the discretionary land-use approval Pulaski County's 2026 data-center drafts would require before a [[High-Intensity Digital Infrastructure Use (HIDIU)]] could be built or operated. Rather than banning or as-of-right permitting such facilities, the CUP mechanism routes each one through a project-specific review with enumerated submittals, approval findings, performance standards, and cost recovery — the county's chosen instrument for regulating within the [[Arkansas Data Centers Act of 2023 (Act 851) and 2024 Amendments|Act 851]] limits. ## How it appears in the corpus The CUP framework is defined in the draft CUP ordinance produced in the #26-439 set ([[Draft Data-Center Regulatory Framework — HIDIU, CUP, and Related Resolutions]], `26-I-CUP (1).docx`), which provides that HIDIUs *"shall be permitted only subject to Conditional Use Permit approval"* (Art. 5) and that *"No HIDIU shall be constructed or operated without a CUP"* (Art. 6). The 26-I-52 and 26-I-45A moratoria are explicitly a pause **pending development of** a *"Conditional Use Permit and Notice of Industrial Impact and Intent regulatory framework."* The as-introduced, numbered CUP ordinance **26-I-34** also appears in the Clerk-filed May 26 agenda packet (2026-07-09), with its own **Appendix A** tiered filing-fee schedule ($7,500 / $15,000 / $35,000 by MW tier) — a fee structure distinct from the 26-I-CUP draft's $25,000 base fee + $100,000 escrow, one more sign the framework was unsettled across drafts ([[Quorum Court Agenda Records — May 12 and May 26 2026 (Clerk's Filed Packet)]]). **What the CUP would require** (from `26-I-CUP (1).docx`): - **Submittals** — site/development plans; electrical load and infrastructure analysis; water usage and sourcing plan; noise study; fire-protection plan; environmental and waste-management plan; decommissioning plan (Art. 6). - **Approval findings** — that *"[i]nfrastructure capacity is adequate or will be provided,"* impacts are mitigated, the use is compatible with surrounding land uses, and public safety is protected (Art. 6). - **Performance standards** — *"65 dBA daytime / 55 dBA nighttime at property boundary"*; *"Minimum 500 feet from residential uses"*; demonstrated sustainable water supply; proof of grid capacity or funded upgrades (Art. 7). - **Cost recovery** — *"Base Application Fee: $25,000; Escrow Deposit: Minimum $100,000,"* plus annual monitoring (Art. 8). ## Stakeholders - **[[Pulaski County Quorum Court]]** and its **Planning Board** — the framework directs the Planning Board to develop the CUP standards during any moratorium. - Applicants — HIDIU developers ([[AVAIO Digital Partners]], [[Willowbend Capital, LLC]]) whose projects would (absent an exemption) require a CUP. ## Timeline - **2026-05 / 06** — the CUP ordinance is drafted (this production) as the permanent complement to the moratorium. - **2026-07-14** — the postponed vote on the moratorium that would trigger CUP-framework development. ## Notes "Conditional use" appears elsewhere in the corpus in the Conway context; **this page is the Pulaski County HIDIU-specific CUP framework**. It is a drafting-stage instrument — not adopted county law as of this production — and its relationship to the county's existing administrative [[Site plan review]] procedure (which currently governs projects like [[AVAIO Digital Partners|Project Leo]]) is not reconciled in the drafts.