Reno Ward 3 members press city on data center moratorium, raise heat-island and utility concerns

Vice Mayor Martinez told the Ward 3 Neighborhood Advisory Board on June 2 that the City Council has approved a moratorium on new data centers until August 2027 to allow the city time to define conditions and findings for future approvals.

"Yesterday, we approved a moratorium on data centers until August 2027 till we vet sort of what topics we need to look at, what conditions we need to see when we're approving data centers in particular," Martinez said.

Board members and residents urged more clarity about what the city controls and what falls to other agencies. Veronica Sharma reminded the board that the city amended its land‑use code in 2024 to create a distinct data‑center use requiring discretionary review; other limits—such as power-supply siting, tax abatements and water will‑serve letters—are controlled by external entities including NV Energy and regional utilities.

Several speakers raised climate and neighborhood impacts from fan‑cooled facilities that vent large volumes of heat. Lauren Croll said she had heard "extreme anger" about fan‑cooled sites close to downtown and asked whether companies would be required to fund mitigation such as additional tree canopy or other cooling investments. Anthony Dispenszeri urged a local task force or focused effort to study urban heat mitigation, tree planting and street‑level cooling measures.

Vice Mayor Martinez and staff reiterated that the moratorium covers new applications and that projects already approved may proceed: "It doesn't" apply to existing construction phases, Martinez said when asked whether active projects were affected. Staff and board members discussed next steps including asking staff to present more detail about what the city can regulate and to return to the NAB with subject‑matter briefings.

No vote or formal policy change related to data centers was made at this meeting; members requested future briefings and regional coordination.