Petersburg assembly deadlocks 3-3, rejecting one-year data center moratorium

A proposed one-year pause on data center permits in Petersburg failed Monday on a 3-3 vote of the Petersburg Borough Assembly. That leaves a proposed data center at the former Ocean Beauty cannery on the downtown waterfront to be handled under the borough's existing permit and power-service rules.

The Planning Commission had recommended that the borough stop accepting land-use applications and building permits for data centers in Service Area 1 while it writes land-use standards for them. Assembly Members Scott Newman, Rob Schwartz and Jeff Meucci voted for the recommendation. Vice Mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor, Member Bob Martin and Mayor Bob Lynn voted against it. Member James Valentine was excused. Two members argued that any pause should cover the whole borough rather than Service Area 1 alone.

The project is a small data center planned by the San Francisco company Greensparc on property owned by Petersburg-raised developer Andrew Mazzella. The borough's electric utility has said the facility would draw on the site's existing 2-megawatt transformer, which powered the cannery, and could not take more power without the utility's approval, according to a utility FAQ released in April.

Utility Director Steve Harbour told the assembly the grid already has limits that apply without a moratorium. Petersburg's peak demand is reaching 13.8 megawatts, he said, and the Southeast Alaska Power Agency expects to have a third turbine in place by the end of 2027 whose sole job is to end peak shaving, the practice of trimming power use during the highest-demand hours, in the communities it serves. A large user approaching that peak would be told to shut down, Harbour said, and the utility can cut its power if it doesn't comply. "So there's a lot of stop, a lot of guardrails in place," he said. If the project doesn't happen, Harbour said, the worst case is higher rates.

Gregor called the moratorium "a solution in search of a problem." If a plan doesn't make sense for the community, he said, it's the utility director's job to protect the community.

Schwartz took the other side, saying he supported pausing to gather more information. "I've heard enough from the community and there's enough distrust," he said.

Mazzella Alaska, Mazzella's company, told the assembly it is paying for a comprehensive study of Petersburg's electrical system at its own expense rather than leaving the question to speculation.

Harbour is also drafting a tiered ordinance for large power users. It would deny applications that exceed a set share of available power, and applicants could appeal to the assembly.