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Tooele Council weighs zoning changes and limits for data centers over water and sewer concerns
Summary
Community development director Andrew Agard urged the council to consider updating the development code to address data centers — citing rapid growth driven by AI and cloud services, heavy water and power demands, potential closed-loop cooling discharges, and loopholes in existing definitions that could allow data centers under 'warehouse' or 'research facility' labels.
Andrew Agard, Tooele’s community development director, presented research and options for how the city could treat data centers in land-use code, warning that current definitions (for example, of warehouses and research facilities) could allow a data center to avoid explicit review.
"Data centers are controversial because they can be a tax windfall for a city, but also a grid headache at the same time," Agard said, sketching trade-offs between construction jobs and long-term demands on water, power and sewer systems. He described types of data centers — from small modular 'edge' sites to hyperscale campuses — and noted estimates he referenced in his research: enterprise centers using roughly 300,000–500,000 gallons of water per day and hyperscale installations drawing far more (he cited up to 5,000,000 gallons per day for the largest sites).
Councilmembers probed enforceability and control options. Several favored either explicitly prohibiting data centers inside city limits (by adding the use to the commercial table and withholding 'permitted' status) or tightening definitions for warehouse and research uses to close potential loopholes. Questions focused on how to limit or manage water use and the technical complexities of closed-loop cooling systems; staff flagged recent reporting from Cheyenne where closed-loop discharge required new sewer-plant monitoring.
Chair Brady said he was cautious but open to an evidence-based approach: if the council wants to keep data centers out, he suggested a straightforward code amendment to prohibit them; if the council prefers flexibility, staff could limit uses to specific industrial zones and require conditions such as closed-loop cooling and on-site power generation. Andrew Agard offered to research ordinance language and return with draft options and, if needed, outside technical consultation.
The council gave direction to pursue tighter definitions to prevent a data-center use from sneaking in under other land-use categories and asked staff to return with draft language and possible zones where such uses could be considered or prohibited.
