Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Zoning topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council debates zoning text changes for data centers, chickens and fences ahead of public hearing
Summary
Planning staff proposed zoning amendments that would treat data centers as special‑use/industrial with a 10,000 sq ft cap and add health, safety and study requirements; councilors debated removing the size cap while retaining stipulations and urged staff to revise the draft before the Aug. 17 public hearing.
Planning staff outlined a set of proposed zoning text amendments on July 20 that would add or clarify definitions for data centers, personal vehicle sales/rental and repair uses, adjust fence‑permit exemptions and prohibit keeping chickens as an accessory use in RSA districts.
Staff said the draft defines a data center as a facility housing servers, networking equipment and associated systems and would require all cooling, emergency power generators and related equipment to be contained within an enclosed building. The amendment would also require additional stipulations or study requirements to address fire protection, water and power consumption, on‑site energy generation, noise, hazardous materials and waste and other potential impacts.
A 10,000‑square‑foot gross‑floor‑area limit for data centers in the draft drew questions from council members. Planning staff said that limit came from prior consultants and that "micro" data centers exist under that size; several councilors said industrial zones should be available for larger facilities and worried that a size cap could unduly restrict industrially zoned property. Others said health, safety and infrastructure stipulations in section c addressed many concerns and recommended retaining them.
Council members discussed options including removing subsections a and b (which would include the size cap and certain location restrictions), keeping subsection c’s stipulations and keeping data centers as a special‑use review in industrial zones so larger proposals could be evaluated case by case. Councilors also raised questions about noise from cooling systems and the need for guardrails addressing power usage and environmental impacts.
Staff agreed to revise the draft and redistribute it to the council before next week’s meeting so any changes can be made prior to setting the Aug. 17 public hearing. The council also briefly discussed proposed clarifications to fence exemptions and a prohibition on chickens in RSA districts, with no additional changes requested for the poultry provision at that time.
The council did not take a final vote on the zoning text amendments at the work session; staff will return an updated draft for review prior to the public hearing.
