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Planning commissioners call for 120‑day review and stronger standards before adopting data‑center rules
Summary
Commissioners recommended a 120‑day moratorium and asked staff to return with best‑practice criteria (setbacks, water‑use controls, noise limits, closed‑loop cooling options) before adopting a new data‑center special‑use standard added to the draft zoning ordinance.
Members of the public and several commissioners raised concerns about newly included data‑center provisions in the CA‑25‑02 zoning rewrite, prompting the Planning Commission to recommend a pause and further study before final adoption.
Technical commenters—including a university systems engineer—urged stronger operational standards for data centers, arguing that onsite generators should meet EPA Tier 4 emissions standards and that cooling systems should favor closed‑loop designs that minimize fresh‑water use. "A midsize facility uses 300,000 gallons of water a day," a commenter said, urging the county to require closed‑loop systems and stronger setback, noise and discharge protections (public commenter, SEG 1336–1360).
Commissioners debated two pathways: retain a baseline set of eleven standards in the draft and strengthen them, or remove the data‑center section and return it for a dedicated work session. The Planning Commission ultimately endorsed a recommendation that the Board place a 120‑day moratorium on final adoption of data‑center development standards while staff compiles best practices and suggested criteria; commissioners asked staff to explore setback increases (commenters cited examples of 200‑foot or larger setbacks), water‑use restrictions and noise controls.
Why it matters: data centers can demand significant utility and water infrastructure and may have outsized impacts in coastal counties. Commissioners stressed the need to avoid introducing a permissive or underspecified pathway for industrial data centers without clear mitigation and monitoring requirements.
Next steps: staff will prepare a report summarizing best practices and proposed standards for the Planning Commission and the Board of Commissioners to consider; the commission recommended a roughly 120‑day window for that work and suggested that any interim ordinance or criteria be clearly documented in the packet forwarded to the Board.
