Flagstaff Planning and Zoning Commission recommends ban on commercial data centers, sends measure to City Council

The Flagstaff Planning and Zoning Commission voted to recommend Proposal 2, a zoning code text amendment that would effectively bar new commercial data centers within city limits, sending the item to the Flagstaff City Council after a 4-3 recorded vote.

Staff had recommended a regulatory approach (Proposal 1) that would allow data centers only under a conditional use permit with mitigation measures. In explaining that recommendation, staff warned of legal risk: developers who already own land might challenge restrictive local standards under Arizona Proposition 207 and could seek compensation if a court found the municipal restrictions impaired property value. Staff said the proposed CUP framework aimed to balance local mitigation while avoiding preemption and to provide a model other jurisdictions could adopt.

The commission—debate centered on resource use, public-safety review, enforceable standards and legal exposure. Commissioners questioned whether a CUP process could reliably protect the community from long-term risks including water consumption, noise, heat and abandoned facilities. Commissioner Norton flagged the decommissioning provisions in the draft, noting that the code would consider a site abandoned after 12 months of inactivity and require a decommissioning plan within 90 days of ceasing operations, and asked whether that was sufficient to prevent the city from inheriting cleanup costs.

Public comment was strongly tilted toward stricter limits or a ban. "I'm concerned with the data centers being allowed in Flagstaff even under proposal one," Flagstaff resident Kavon Kasraor told the commission, citing "water, noise, pollution and power." River Ramulia, speaking for themselves, urged the commission to "forbid them," arguing the city should not facilitate additional data-center construction. Brianna A. Costa, who identified herself as a Flagstaff resident, recommended that any allowed data center be subject to a CUP and to measurable, enforceable efficiency standards for power and water use. Michelle James, executive director of Friends of Flagstaff's Future, commended staff for identifying the regulatory gap and urged clearer language on renewable-power commitments.

City staff outlined potential, limited local benefits of smaller data-center facilities. "One of the advantages of a smaller data center facility is actually to collocate a lot of those servers into one facility," said CJ Perry, the city's chief information officer, and he noted smaller local facilities can reduce duplicated cooling loads and latency for municipal systems. Staff and commissioners discussed scale and cooling: air-cooled facilities tend to remain near 10,000 square feet before operators shift to water cooling, and power draw rises with size (staff cited orders of magnitude such as roughly 1–5 megawatts for smaller facilities and tens to hundreds of megawatts for hyperscale sites).

Commissioners also asked how the code would treat ancillary server rooms inside existing institutions (hospitals, universities) and whether NAU lands were subject to city zoning. Senior Assistant City Attorney Christina Ruba clarified that NAU is not subject to city zoning for data centers built for NAU government purposes, but a commercial data center on NAU land would be subject to city code.

After a motion by Commissioner Luki and a second, the commission voted to recommend Proposal 2 (PZ26-00018) to the City Council. The chair announced the motion carried with the commission—recording a 4-3 vote in favor; commissioners also discussed how abstentions were treated in the tally during the roll call process. The commission—recommendation now goes to the City Council for consideration.

Next steps: the City Council will receive the commission—recommendation and decide whether to adopt, modify or reject the proposed zoning amendment. The commission adjourned at 5:51 p.m.