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Council reverses Planning Commission, approves North Virginia data center with conditions after heated public debate
Summary
After hours of public comment and divided testimony, Renos City Council voted unanimously to overturn the January denial by the Planning Commission and grant a conditional use permit for a 5-megawatt data center on North Virginia Street with noise, landscaping, solar and future-effluent-plumbing conditions.
Reno City Council voted unanimously on March 12 to overturn the Planning Commissions earlier denial and grant a conditional use permit allowing a data center to operate 24 hours a day on a 7-acre site along North Virginia Street, but only after the applicant agreed to multiple new conditions responding to council and public concerns.
The decision capped a contentious public hearing that featured more than two dozen speakers, most urging denial or a citywide pause on new data centers pending new standards. Speakers cited concerns about large water demands from evaporative cooling systems, strain on regional electric infrastructure, limited local jobs for the scale of proposed development and long-term environmental impacts.
Planning staff had recommended denial in January, citing concerns about whether public services and facilities in the North Valleys could serve the project without material public harm. The applicant appealed that decision and presented additional mitigation at the March 12 meeting, including rooftop photovoltaic arrays, additional landscape screening, an amended fence design and a condition to install plumbing that would allow the site to accept reclaimed (effluent) water if future regional infrastructure is extended to the site.
Council member Lynn Doer, who represents the area, said the developers willingness to increase screening and add solar and plumbing improvements made the proposal acceptable as conditioned. "This is better than what could be built there by right," Doer said, noting the alternative by-right industrial uses would likely bring more traffic and loading docks to the site.
The council motion approved the appeal and overturned the Planning Commission denial while adding several conditions, among them: installation of roughly 5,500 square feet of rooftop solar; rooftop and mechanical provisions to allow future connection to effluent water when regional infrastructure exists; a requirement that movable server equipment and furniture be assessed for reuse or recycling when taken out of service; additional evergreen tree screening on the propertys west side to buffer a small nonconforming mobile-home enclave; modified anti-climb perimeter fencing and added noise-mitigation measures to protect adjacent residences.
The vote to approve the conditioned permit was unanimous. Council members emphasized a parallel need for citywide rules and standards for data centers and asked staff to schedule a joint briefing with the Planning Commission to craft clearer, consistent policies for future applications.
Why it matters: The vote allows a private data center to proceed in a part of north Reno that already has nonconforming residential uses. Council members sought to balance economic and development interests with environmental and neighborhood protections and to press city staff to develop a stronger, predictable policy for future data-center proposals.
