Sitka planners recommend banning data centers in every zone, not by permit

The Sitka Planning Commission voted 4-0 Wednesday to recommend banning data centers in every zone, after most of the people who testified asked for a ban instead of the permit process city staff had proposed.

Nothing is banned yet. The Assembly decides and can accept, change or reject the recommendation. The ordinance is not on the Assembly's Oct. 27 agenda.

Sixteen people testified at the hearing, and 11 of them supported prohibiting data centers in all zones, according to the city's draft minutes. Their concerns included strain on infrastructure, noise and the general degradation of quality of life. Two written comments read into the record opposed the proposed ordinance, and six of the seven written comments submitted beforehand opposed data centers.

Tory O'Connell Curran, who wrote that she has lived in Sitka 46 years, asked for a ban that also covers unzoned areas. "A conditional use permit will be granted and then the horse will be out of the barn," she wrote. The commission's motion covers "all zones" and does not say whether that includes unzoned land. Michelle Jones wrote that she opposed data centers "as a land use in Sitka altogether" and asked whether a specific developer had prompted the proposal. The staff memo names none. Carolyn Nichols, who wrote the one comment in favor of the amendment, said Sitka residents should have full say.

City staff had proposed allowing data centers case by case, with a conditional use permit, in the public lands, waterfront, industrial, Gary Paxton and general island districts, Alaska News reported Oct. 17. The Sustainability Commission had unanimously recommended on Oct. 5 that data centers be allowed only with a conditional use permit. During the hearing, Acting Chair Robin Sherman said the commission could also propose a ban. Commissioner Jacquie Foss moved to keep the draft as written but prohibit data centers in all zones.

Sitka's code does not define a data center now. The draft would define one as a facility that mainly holds equipment to process, store and transmit digital information. A server room for data produced locally by another permitted or conditional use would not count.

The staff memo, from Sustainability Coordinator Bri Gabel and Planning and Community Development Director Amy Ainslie, said the amendment "does not propose prohibiting data centers" and called the five districts "a starting point for discussion only." It said data centers can use a lot of energy and water for cooling and create light and noise. Because Sitka runs on an islanded grid supplied entirely by hydropower and developable land is at a premium, the memo said, a data center with a small footprint and large electricity use is "not entirely unlikely" to be proposed there. One megawatt can support 100 to 300 high-demand homes, it said.

The memo pointed to a data center proposed in Petersburg, one recently denied in Wrangell and a refrigerator-size data center installed in 2024 at a Cordova hydro plant. In Fairbanks, the borough mayor has proposed pausing permits for large data centers through 2027.