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Orange County board refers zoning text amendment to remove 'by‑right' status for data centers after wide public concern

Orange County Board of Supervisors · January 13, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

The board voted 5–0 to refer a zoning text amendment that would remove data centers as a by‑right use to the Planning Commission for public hearing and recommendation; public commenters urged quick action, raised water, farmland and transparency worries, and asked for monitoring and decommissioning plans.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to initiate a zoning text amendment to remove data centers as a by‑right use in the county and referred the measure to the Planning Commission for public hearing and recommendation.

The chair described the resolution as a step to align the county’s ordinance with recently established Technology District provisions and said the Planning Commission would hold a public hearing and return a recommendation to the board. A board member urged the commission to take up the matter at its first meeting on Feb. 5 and to “scrub every piece of ordinance” to remove any by‑right allowance for data centers; Supervisor Coleman said the action would help “protect our county from by‑right data center…

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