Public commenter tells council a planning-board data-center zoning proposal should be "dead on arrival"

During the public-comment period, Dan Smith told the County Council that a planning-board-drafted zoning bill would "permit hyper scale data centers throughout much of the agriculture zones of the county" and urged the council to treat the proposal as "dead on arrival." Smith said the planning board did not brief the council on the measure and that the board approved adding the bill to its agenda without maps, analysis or time for public comment.

Smith said the draft appeared on the planning board's Jan. 29 agenda as a supplemental item and, according to his account, was drafted the day before a council briefing on the data-center task force report. He told the council the planning board "approved this action without discussion, questions, maps, data, analysis, or opportunity for public comment." He also said the draft could permit data centers in up to "one third of all the land in District 9," a claim he presented as an apparent scope estimate.

Chair Crystal Oriaga thanked Smith for his comments; no substantive reply or staff rebuttal appears in the transcript, and the council did not vote on the planning-board proposal during the meeting. The chair later proceeded to scheduled legislative business.

The allegation, as presented in public comment, remains a claim on the record pending any follow-up or staff response. Council members and staff later discussed unrelated zoning and legislative matters in the agenda but did not resolve Smith's specific accusation during the session.