Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...OAKLEY — Oakley officials are considering a permanent ban on data centers as the city works on updating zoning ordinances and tightening regulations to prevent development of the controversial facilities.
With a temporary moratorium already in place, several councilmembers expressed support for pursuing a more permanent solution and asked staff to include more details on the potential impacts from data centers.
RELATED: PG&E’s data center pipeline more than doubles in second quarter
Councilmembers Anissa Williams and Shannon Shaw said they would like to see ordinances that would describe and define the uses of data center operations to prevent loopholes.
“I don’t want there to be a way for it to come under any other name,” Williams said during a joint City Council and Planning Commission work session on Tuesday. “So I just have some concerns if there’s any tight language that we could do. Who knows in two years what they’re going to decide these things are called, especially with all the negative things that are happening.”
Planning Commissioner Sean Ireland suggested the ordinance also include operational “objective criteria” for the external effects of a data center, such as water and power consumption, noise, and environmental risks, to ensure potential operators do not identify themselves as a different type of business.
The joint workshop was held to provide staff direction after Oakley extended its temporary ban until April 14, 2027. The city was the first in the Bay Area to prohibit accepting, processing, or approving any land-use applications for data centers.
During Tuesday’s workshop, councilmembers and planning commissioners were given a presentation on concerns related to the demand on natural resources and environmental impacts created by the facilities.
It also provided a brief overview of trends and actions taken by cities, as well as current legislation, to ban data centers.
In Monterey Park in Los Angeles County, the city permanently banned data centers through a ballot measure initiative, according to a staff report.
Nationwide, about 141 municipalities have enacted permanent or temporary bans, according to the city.
Vice Mayor Aaron Meadows asked staff to provide more information on the health effects that any potential data centers would have on the community and the appropriate distance they should be from residential areas.
Planning Commission Vice Chair Kerry Harvey asked how much a ballot measure would cost and suggested the city consider designating all data centers as heavy industrial use.
“Don’t let them have our water, please consider that,” said Harvey.
Current zoning, land use designations and available land substantially located away from residential uses make the city an unattractive place for large-scale data centers, said Community Development Director Ken Strelo.
Currently, the Oakley Municipal Code does not include a definition for or listing of data centers, said Strelo.
“It’s what would be considered an unclassified use, and there’s a process for anybody proposing a use that’s not defined in the zoning code,” he said.
Strelo said Oakley lacks a heavy industrial general plan land use designation and zoning district, leaving very few potential locations for large data centers.
The city, however, can ban data centers and lawfully determine that such facilities are not an appropriate use in any zoning district within Oakley.
“Unlike some uses where constitutional issues may be implicated, such as the First Amendment issues that affect adult businesses – data centers present purely land use and environmental considerations that would allow for outright bans,” Strelo said.
However, there were some caveats, such as a pending application for a data center or the possibility that such a facility was the only viable use for a particular property, said Strelo.
This, he said, was “unlikely to be the case” as there were a myriad of other commercial and industrial uses that would be permitted on any land where a data center would seek to locate.
“Should the city implement an outright ban, it should do so only after finding that the environmental, land use, and other circumstances support such a ban, and that no properties within the city would be precluded from developing other reasonable industrial commercial uses,” he said.
Officials agreed to a second joint workshop that would focus on carving out an ordinance for an outright ban.
Some councilmembers asked if it was possible to have a draft by the end of the year. City Attorney Derek Cole said it would be a tough ask because of meeting schedules and an upcoming election in November, which could potentially see two new councilmembers on the dais.
“I think that’s ambitious if you’re going to add the workshop piece,” said Cole. “It’s not that we won’t work with you, but I just think that’s at this point a little bit hard.”