Fresno will have to wait several more months before the city can finalize a proposed 10-year moratorium on data centers.
City officials voted 7-0 Thursday to start the process to make an amendment to the city municipal code to ban “AI/cloud data centers” for ten years. The resolution would ask the city staff to clearly define data centers in the city code and prohibit them as an allowed use for ten years. After ten years, the ban would be permanent unless future councils vote to amend the prohibition.
The process could take four to eight months and additional layers of review before a ban could go into effect, city staff said.
Councilmember Nick Richardson introduced the proposed ban last week, saying he didn’t think they made sense in the Central Valley due to the region’s chronic water issues. Mayor Jerry Dyer joined as a co-sponsor of the item Wednesday afternoon, saying that “data centers can also occupy significant amounts of land while creating relatively few permanent jobs compared with other potential uses.”
Richardson said his intent isn’t to cripple business. He said data centers have become a “specter” that is getting in the way of businesses moving or developing in Fresno. He said other cities and municipalities that have implemented bans have done this text amendment work in private.
“In my opinion, this is a more transparent procedure because we are bringing this conversation for the first time out to the public, so the public can be part of it,” he said.
Data centers are not currently allowed in the city of Fresno under the current municipal code, though some worry that without a specific prohibition, they can still sneak through. The planning director has the discretion to make a determination on land uses not expressly identified as an allowed use, per city rules.
“Tech companies are much better at this than we are in finding loopholes to the tax code, to the environmental code,” Councilmember Miguel Arias said.
Councilmembers Brandon Vang and Arias asked for a few amendments to the resolution that would make it clear the ban applied to current land and buildings in the city and future land annexed into the city, citing concerns about the potential for data centers in the proposed southeast Fresno development, south SEDA.
Arias requested that staff notify the city council of any application for a data center — including for an auxiliary or secondary use of a data center storage system.
City Planning Director Jennifer Clark said there are no current applications for a data center proposed in the city of Fresno.
Several public commenters including — an environmental group, a doctor, youth advocacy groups and council candidate Ariana Martinez Lott — praised the city for taking the step to ban data centers, citing concerns over water, noise and air pollution and public health impacts.
Fresno resident Lisa Flores said that City Council members and their staff should also be banned from signing non-disclosure agreements with data center companies, and banned from working for any of these companies after their time at City Hall.
Will all data centers be banned? Or just large ones?
Councilmember Annalisa Perea asked for clarification on whether all data centers would be banned, or just those that meet specific, proposed definitions such as a facility that exceeds two megawatts of energy demand or exceeds 20,000 square-feet.
“My concern is that the way this is currently written is that we’re leaving room for the potential for future data centers to be constructed, so long as they do not meet these certain thresholds,” Perea said.
She asked whether a data center that produces 1.9 megawatts of demand or that are 19,000 square-feet, for example, would be allowed.
“It’s not exclusive to two megawatts. That’s a really good question,” Clark said. “This is just typical that they’re characterized by, but that doesn’t mean it’s exclusive to (these definitions).”
“If we want to say… this is definitely not permitted, and these are permitted or permitted with a conditional use permit, then it would trigger additional review. This would be a prohibition. So once it shows up in the use table, it would be a dashed line,” Clark said.
Next steps for Fresno’s data center ban
Clark said the planning department will develop the text amendment language in accordance with the resolution.
Then, the proposed ban would be taken to the Airport Land Use commission and Planning Commission before it could be brought back to Council. Depending on whether the text amendment requires additional state environmental review, or California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA, it could take anywhere between four and eight months to finalize the text amendment.
“It is very possible that we could be back in front of you before the end of the year,” Clark said.
The Fresno Bee
Melissa Montalvo is The Fresno Bee’s accountability reporter. Prior to this role, she covered Latino communities for The Fresno Bee as the part of the Central Valley News Collaborative. She also reported on labor, economy and poverty through newsroom partnerships between The Fresno Bee, Fresnoland and CalMatters as a Report for America Corps member.