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Residents urge moratorium on large data centers; council hears environmental and utility concerns
Summary
At public comment during the June 8 Marysville City Council meeting residents urged a moratorium or ordinance to stop 'data-center-ready' warehouses, citing noise, water use, thermal impacts and potential utility-rate increases; a commenter also raised a potential conflict-of-interest concern connected to the Cascade development.
Several Marysville residents used the public-comment period at the June 8 council meeting to urge the city to consider a moratorium or ordinance to limit large-scale data centers or warehouses that developers describe as 'data-center ready.'
Mary Ferrell told the council that the growing number of industrial-scale computing facilities raises environmental, noise and utility-rate concerns and cited recent reporting on potential thermal impacts to rivers from cooling water discharge. She urged the city to 'pass an ordinance to ban large load data centers or at least a moratorium until adequate safeguards can be developed and put in place.' (Comment attributed to Mary Ferrell.)
Joe Beck echoed the request and tied it to the Cascade development project, saying the project’s developer lists warehouses that are 'data-center ready' and asking the council to pause approvals until the city can evaluate environmental and infrastructure impacts. He also raised a separate governance concern, alleging a potential conflict of interest involving a council member’s outside work; the council member on the record said he had already recused himself from involvement in that project.
Mayor Naring and council members listened to the comments but did not direct staff to prepare an ordinance or moratorium at the meeting. Multiple council members later said the topic came up in informal public forums and could be something the council or staff examines in the near future; no policy action was taken on June 8.
Context and next steps: Commenters cited noise, increased electricity and water demand, and potential impacts to waterways. These are primarily planning and utility-management issues that can require zoning updates, development-condition changes, utility planning and environmental review. Any council-directed study, moratorium or ordinance would require a future agenda item, staff analysis, and likely coordination with county and state agencies; the council did not set that process in motion at this meeting.
