The Planning Commission on Jan. 15 approved a conditional use permit for a proposed two-story, 91,000-square-foot interconnection data center at 265 Keystone Avenue, subject to a package of conditions addressing noise, screening, landscaping and sustainability measures.

Jeff Foster, associate planner, recommended approval after reviewing site design details that included two generator yards, rooftop space prepared for photovoltaic arrays and “approximately 11,800 square feet of landscaping” to meet front-yard and street-tree requirements. Foster said the applicant had proposed additional measures in a memo provided the afternoon of the meeting, including a redesigned equipment screen and extra evergreen planting along an adjacent mobile-home park.

Chris Wiesler, chief executive of Centra, and Josh Hindow of Kimley-Horn presented the proposal and said the project is an interconnection facility intended to allow carriers, cloud firms and content providers to exchange traffic locally. Hindow told the commission the proposed design uses air-based cooling technologies that do not use evaporative water cooling, and the applicant stated they expect to use about 3 megawatts at initial turn-up with infrastructure in place to serve up to 6.67 megawatts in total at buildout.

The applicant proposed site and building screening, acoustic treatments and a construction waste-management program; Hindow said the project includes “200% of the minimum landscape requirement” with drought-tolerant species, two EV chargers and a plan to install on-site photovoltaic panels. Centra also said it will apply for NV Energy’s green energy rider to procure renewable energy for operations.

Commissioners asked detailed questions about the easement along the railroad (reserved for a potential future bike path), the status of NV Energy will-serve letters and tribal monitoring for ground disturbance. The applicant and their representatives said they have a will-serve letter from NV Energy and have been coordinating with NV Energy on off-site infrastructure timelines; they also said the site-owner has been in contact with the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony and that tribal monitoring provisions recorded with the property will be honored.

In discussion, commissioners noted this site’s long period of vacancy and that a previous entertainment/recreation entitlement for the parcel had expired. Several commissioners said the Keystone proposal, as conditioned, better fits the downtown action plan and revitalization goals than continuing to leave the parcel vacant.

A motion to approve the Keystone conditional use permit passed on a roll-call vote. Conditions include limitations on truck arrival/departure hours, acoustical mitigation to keep nighttime noise at or below required limits, screening walls for generators and the addition of rooftop photovoltaic installation as part of the approved project.