{"id":454179,"date":"2026-09-05T05:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T05:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/454179\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T05:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T05:44:11","slug":"fresno-data-center-ban-advances-with-new-safeguards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/454179\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno data center ban advances with new safeguards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"a\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer addresses the Fresno City Council on Sept. 3, 2026. Photo by Ben Hensley<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tpublished on September 4, 2026 – 1:47 PM
Written by Ben Hensley<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno City Council voted 7-0 Thursday to begin drafting a citywide data center prohibition, adding requirements to notify councilmembers of applications and explicitly cover land later annexed into the city.<\/p>\n

The vote advances the proposed measure from Councilmember Nick Richardson. Earlier this week, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer publicly announced his support of the measure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s vote did not immediately enact a ban. It directs staff to draft a 10-year prohibition that would become permanent unless amended by a council vote.<\/p>\n

Richardson said he chose the decade-long period to put a future reassessment beyond the current councilmembers\u2019 potential consecutive terms, allowing another council to consider whether technological advances warrant a different approach.<\/p>\n

For now, officials said no project is awaiting approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no applications and there have been no inquiries,\u201d Planning and Development Director Jennifer Clark said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Drawing the line<\/p>\n

Much of Thursday\u2019s debate focused on whether the proposed rules could leave openings for smaller facilities or data centers operating inside existing businesses.<\/p>\n

A revised definition, developed with the mayor\u2019s office, describes facilities primarily devoted to large-scale servers, data storage and network infrastructure. It explicitly includes AI model training, cloud storage, high-performance computing and cryptocurrency validation.<\/p>\n

The definition describes typical characteristics including power demand exceeding 2 megawatts and building footprints exceeding 20,000 square feet. The updated resolution<\/a> provides the starting point for staff\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Clark said those characteristics would not automatically exempt smaller facilities from the proposed prohibition.<\/p>\n

Richardson said the proposal would not prohibit businesses, hospitals or city departments from adopting AI or maintaining servers that support their own operations.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Miguel Arias pressed that distinction, using a hypothetical conversion of part of an Amazon warehouse into a data center. No such proposal was identified.<\/p>\n

Clark said selling cloud services from part of a warehouse would constitute a separate primary use. Additionally, serving a company\u2019s broader network would differ from dedicated servers supporting the local facility\u2019s permitted operations.<\/p>\n

New notification requirements<\/p>\n

Arias initially sought to suspend the planning director\u2019s authority to approve data centers while the amendment was developed.<\/p>\n

Fresno\u2019s code does not specifically list data centers as a permitted use; it provides a determination process for unlisted uses. City officials maintained that data centers lack the comparable permitted uses needed to qualify.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to do public outreach. You have to present the project to an advisory group,\u201d Richardson said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He said the process also involves review by the Planning Commission and Airport Land Use Commission.<\/p>\n

Arias instead secured immediate notification to all council offices of applications involving data centers, including proposals describing the activity as incidental or auxiliary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to know when the application comes through,\u201d Arias said.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Brandon Vang also secured language explicitly extending the proposed prohibition to land annexed into Fresno.<\/p>\n

City staff cautioned that Fresno cannot regulate development on unincorporated county land. The council could, however, decline an annexation involving an existing data center.<\/p>\n

Jobs and future tech<\/p>\n

Dyer acknowledged that technological improvements could reduce water consumption, electricity demand and noise, but said limited employment remained a deciding factor in his opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing that they can\u2019t overcome is job creation,\u201d Dyer said.<\/p>\n

The debate overlapped with Thursday\u2019s hours-long discussion of SEDA, the city\u2019s southeast development proposal. Richardson said clarifying Fresno\u2019s position would help other development discussions proceed without speculation that proposed projects were intended to accommodate data centers.<\/p>\n

Richardson said technological changes could eventually warrant a different decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps that is a decision that I\u2019m comfortable leaving to a future council once we block this for 10 years,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n

Another vote to come<\/p>\n

Residents and representatives of Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability and Power California urged stronger protections, with some speakers seeking an immediate interim prohibition or a voter-approved ban.<\/p>\n

A representative of the city attorney\u2019s office said an emergency ordinance requires an imminent threat to public health or safety, not undefined potential activity.<\/p>\n

The council did not adopt an emergency ban.<\/p>\n

Staff must now develop the code amendment and determine the required environmental review. The amendment must undergo advisory review and consideration by the Airport Land Use Commission and Planning Commission before returning to the council.<\/p>\n

Clark said the item could return before the end of the year, depending on environmental review.<\/p>\n

No firm return date was adopted Thursday.<\/p>\n

\t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer addresses the Fresno City Council on Sept. 3, 2026. Photo by Ben Hensley published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[2080,19628,112,8019,114,113,10332,46359,101518,89709],"class_list":["post-454179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-data-centers","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-city-council","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-jerry-dyer","tag-land-use","tag-nick-richardson","tag-south-seda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}