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Hundreds attend Pendleton meeting urging 12-month moratorium and new rules for data centers
Summary
Residents and technical experts pressed the council to enact a 12-month moratorium and to direct planning staff to draft a specific data-center ordinance, citing gaps in the UDO, risks to water and power infrastructure, noise and local character; a petition with roughly 1,915 signatures was submitted.
A large turnout of residents and experts urged the Pendleton Town Council to pause any permitting of data centers and to enact a 12-month moratorium while the town updates its Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) to define and regulate data centers.
Speakers, including long-time residents and technical professionals, told the council they fear current code gaps could allow a data center to be approved as an unlisted or warehouse-like use without adequate controls. "Our UDO contains no reference to data centers ... there is also no definition of a data center," resident Tandy Holloway Jones said, urging the council to "consider enacting a temporary 12-month moratorium on any data center applications" so planning staff can draft a specific ordinance.
Petition and technical requests: Paul Wetry told the council a petition filed April 23 now has roughly 1,915 signatures and urged a pause to allow study on zoning, water use, power-grid impacts, noise, traffic, emergency response and decommissioning plans. Attorney Loren White explained that when a use is unlisted a developer can argue similarity to a listed category and a zoning administrator or board of zoning appeals may have to classify it; he described that gap as one developers have exploited elsewhere.
Staff perspective and protections: Planning director Denise told the public that Pendleton has limited heavy-industrial zoning (three small clusters of parcels) and multiple protective provisions in the UDO—gateway corridor overlay standards, landscaping, buffering, mechanical-noise and lighting requirements—and that the planning department and legal counsel will research targeted UDO amendments if the council directs them to do so. Denise said the town has not received a formal data-center application from a property owner in the jurisdiction.
Alternate views: A technology consultant, Ben Writesman, urged the town to proceed from ‘‘transparency and rigorous planning’’ and warned against decisions based on social media; he emphasized that data centers host critical digital services and require specialized infrastructure including high-capacity power and fiber.
Council response and next steps: Council members thanked attendees and said staff and legal counsel will work with the planning commission and the public to determine next steps. The council did not adopt a moratorium during the meeting; attendees were told staff would continue research and return with recommended actions.
