Sitka Planning Commission recommends ban on data centers in all zones

The Sitka Planning Commission voted 4-0 Wednesday, on a motion by Commissioner Jacquie Foss, to recommend that the Assembly ban data centers in every zone. The vote rejects a staff plan to allow them with a conditional use permit in five districts.

Nothing is banned yet. The Assembly adopts zoning ordinances and can accept, change or reject the recommendation.

Sitka's code does not currently define a data center or say where one may go. The draft ordinance 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.

Staff had proposed allowing data centers case by case in the public lands, waterfront, industrial, Gary Paxton and general island districts, the plan the commission took testimony on Wednesday, as Alaska News reported Oct. 17. Foss's motion kept the draft as written but prohibited data centers in all zones instead.

A 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 cited energy use, water for cooling, and light and noise. Because Sitka runs on an islanded grid supplied entirely by hydroelectric power, the memo said, a small data center that uses a lot of electricity could plausibly be proposed there. It said 1 megawatt can support 100 to 300 high-demand homes. The memo noted a proposal in Petersburg and a recent denial in Wrangell.

The Sustainability Commission voted unanimously Oct. 5 to recommend the amendment and said data centers should be allowed only conditionally, according to the memo.

Six of seven written comments opposed data centers. Michelle Jones wrote, "I oppose data centers as a land use in Sitka altogether," and asked whether a specific developer had prompted the amendment. The memo names none. Tory O'Connell Curran, who wrote 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." The motion says "all zones" and does not say whether that reaches unzoned land. Carolyn Nichols supported the amendment, writing that Sitka residents should have full say.

The ordinance now goes to the Assembly. No reading dates have been set, and it is not on the Assembly's Oct. 27 agenda.