Grand County commissioners unanimously approved spending up to $5,000 Nov. 4 for Sunrise Engineering to prepare draft rules exploring two options: prohibiting data centers to the extent state law allows or allowing smaller facilities.
The work comes ahead of the Jan. 3 expiration of a 180-day temporary land use regulation approved July 7. The regulation paused the acceptance, processing and approval of applications for data centers, data center power plants and associated digital infrastructure while the county develops permanent standards.
The county’s land use code does not yet define data centers or establish permanent standards specifically for them.
Sunrise will prepare proposed ordinance or land-use code language for both options for the planning commission to consider, county spokesperson Melisa Jeffers said.
Jeffers said Sunrise expects to deliver draft options within two weeks. Planning commission review, public hearings and county commission consideration will follow, though dates had not been set as of Nov. 5.
Data centers house computer servers and other equipment used to store and process digital information, supporting services such as cloud computing, financial transactions and artificial intelligence. They require electricity to operate equipment and remove the heat it generates. Their power demand and water use vary with facility size, computing workload and cooling technology.
Grand County is among several Utah communities examining how to regulate data centers. Salt Lake County directed staff to develop new regulations in September and paused consideration of new facilities in unincorporated areas.
The planning commission asked that the policy address state requirements, water scarcity, power demand and financial impacts on the community. Members also want clear definitions that distinguish data centers from computing equipment supporting another permitted business, such as a bank’s server room.
The commission also identified the county’s major utility overlay as an issue to examine. During the Oct. 26 discussion, planning consultant Dan Stenta discussed how existing county utility regulations could apply to infrastructure serving data centers, such as substations.
Sunrise is already assisting the county with a broader rewrite of its land use code.
The Nov. 4 item was removed from the consent agenda for discussion after concerns that the agenda summary did not specify the multiple alternatives requested by the planning commission. Commissioner Trish Hedin clarified that the assignment included both a no-data-center scenario and a small-data-center scenario.
Planning commissioners agreed Oct. 26 to explore both approaches but expressed different views about which one the county should ultimately adopt.
Planning Commissioner Robert O’Brien favored a prohibition, arguing that using digital services does not obligate the county to accommodate the facilities that support them. He raised concerns about resource demands and compatibility with other land uses.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing to say no to certain things,” O’Brien said.
Planning Commissioner Randy Day favored establishing conditions under which facilities could operate, including demonstrating adequate water and power supplies and identifying suitable locations.
“If you can prove you can do it and get the power to it, God bless,” Day said.
Members also discussed noise, lighting, building footprints and distances from neighboring uses. They sought clarification about state requirements and disagreed about whether the county could prohibit data centers.
During public comments Nov. 4, Castle Valley resident Mary O’Brien, Robert O’Brien’s wife, urged commissioners to keep a prohibition among the options considered.
“That open discussion can really only happen if the option of not permitting data centers is on the table, and when Grand County residents are at the table,” she said.
This story was first published by The Times-Independent.