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County draft would shift data-center infrastructure costs to developers, prioritize water protections
Summary
Staff told the Board the draft zoning text amendment would require developers to cover infrastructure costs and include water protections (no private-well draws, closed-loop cooling, feasibility studies); staff emphasized coordination with utilities to protect ratepayers.
Staff told commissioners the draft zoning language is designed to ensure infrastructure costs related to data centers are paid by developers rather than passed to ratepayers. "Infrastructure for data centers should be paid for by the developer, no question at all. That should not be passed on to the general public or to the ratepayers," staff said when summarizing stakeholder input.
Water protections were a central element of the draft: staff proposed closed-loop cooling as a likely requirement, disallowing private-well withdrawals for hyperscale centers, requiring feasibility (water/wastewater) studies, groundwater monitoring, and emergency response planning coordinated with local fire districts. These measures were presented as part of conditional-use and development-agreement requirements to ensure decommissioning and financial assurance.
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