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Saint Mary's council begins work on zoning rules for AI/data centers, citing grid and noise concerns
Summary
Councilors asked the solicitor to draft zoning language to regulate large AI/data centers after a lengthy discussion about heavy electric demand, water and cooling needs, noise from fans and generators, and the need to tie any incentives to long-term community benefits.
Councilors in Saint Mary's spent a substantial portion of Tuesday's meeting discussing whether and how to amend the city's zoning ordinance to address large AI and data-center facilities.
Council member Shane framed the conversation by describing data centers as the "physical infrastructure of the Internet" and warned that modern artificial-intelligence workloads can make such facilities "power hungry." He said some large facilities can demand "100 megawatts of power," a figure he said is "the same load as about 80,000…
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