Fairbanks' new comprehensive plan won't ban data centers, despite calls for one

The final draft of the Fairbanks North Star Borough's new comprehensive plan, which the borough Planning Commission reviewed Tuesday, doesn't ban data centers, though many public comments asked for one.

"Prohibiting a land use in a comprehensive plan can be legally and practically problematic," borough planners wrote in a staff memo. They recommended a separate process to write "legally defensible regulations."

Data centers didn't come up in the plan's surveys or public meetings, the memo says. They became a prominent topic once the draft went out for comment this summer and drew more than 180 comments.

Instead of a ban, the draft adds a box calling data centers an emerging issue that can affect local power and water systems and make more noise than comparable warehouses. Alaska's cold air gives developers an advantage in cooling them, it says.

Until the borough writes rules, the plan would use conditional use permits for uses its code doesn't define.

That approach "leaves local communities completely vulnerable," commenter Sarah Hollister wrote. Residents shouldn't find out after the fact that a "mega-scale, 24/7 industrial AI data center" is moving in next to their homes, schools and water tables, she wrote.

Separately, Mayor Grier Hopkins has proposed pausing permits for large data centers through 2027. The Assembly sent that proposal to the Planning Commission on Oct. 22, with a recommendation due within 90 days.

The plan, the borough's first new one since 2005, would guide growth and land use through 2045. Rezonings and land use permits must be supported by it.

On Tuesday, one commissioner asked whether the data center language could be more neutral, and staff said it potentially could. The commission holds a public hearing on the plan Nov. 10, and the Assembly could take it up in January.