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0:34

Mary Evans

12:21 - 12:56

“For the community to have a voice, data centers must be assigned a zoning category that requires conditional use, and any ordinance that does not include this is not looking out for the best interests of the community, in my opinion.”
Speaker
Mary Evans
Community
Alaska News
Captured at
October 9, 2026

From the transcript

I would also like to caution the residents of Petersburg that the interpretation of industrial and industrial and data centers are industrial helps set administrative precedent that data centers are by right and not conditional use. And as I understand it, I'm very happy to be wrong, but as I understand it, This means that no community voter input would be required for any future data center project under this designation. For the community to have a voice, data centers must be assigned a zoning category that requires conditional use, and any ordinance that does not include this is not looking out for the best interests of the community, in my opinion. All of us in our futures will be at the mercy of what an incredibly small group of city officials think is best, and the people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them. I think that the city beginning this process and allowing someone to spend money developing the property and making plans without having real answers about the code was incredibly irresponsible.

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