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Planning Commission backs amendment to add emerging industrial uses and conditional review for data centers
Summary
The Planning Commission voted to recommend City Council adopt Legislative Amendment LA 26-04, updating the Woodburn Development Ordinance to add targeted industrial uses (including a new data-center conditional-use category) and a 5-acre minimum lot size in the Southwest Industrial Reserve (SWIR).
The Planning Commission voted May 14 to recommend City Council adopt Legislative Amendment LA 26-04, which updates the Woodburn Development Ordinance to add targeted industrial uses to the Southwest Industrial Reserve and to establish a 5-acre minimum lot size (with exceptions).
Senior Planner Dan Handel told the commission the changes follow the city’s 2024 Economic Opportunities Analysis and the April 2025 urban growth boundary expansion that added land in the SWIR. "As you mentioned, we are here to consider a legislative amendment for the Woodburn Development Ordinance," Handel said in his staff presentation, summarizing the code changes and the report that informed them.
The staff draft adds a new row to the industrial use table for "data storage, processing and information technology centers," and recommends allowing data centers in the SWIR only as a conditional use. Handel said the conditional-use approach "automatically brings it to a Type 3 review" so the commission can impose site-specific conditions addressing infrastructure, noise, light, water use and traffic.
Handel also described removing prior sub-area employment and lot rules and proposing a 5-acre minimum lot size aligned with the consultant’s site-requirements analysis. "That 5 acre number comes also from the economic opportunities analysis," he said, and staff included a process to allow smaller sites if an applicant can demonstrate substantial contribution to the city’s economic objectives.
The commission approved a motion to recommend adoption (motion moved by a committee member and seconded; the recommendation will go to City Council for a June 8 public hearing). The staff report and the commission’s discussion will be included in the packet forwarded to Council.
The next formal step is the City Council public hearing scheduled for June 8, 2026, when councilors will consider the commission’s recommendation and the ordinance amendments.
