Gilroy extiende la moratoria sobre proyectos de centros de datos.

The Gilroy City Council has extended a temporary ban on new data center projects in the city for more than 10 months.

Councilmembers on Monday unanimously approved a longer moratorium than it set last month as employees work to create objective zoning, development and operational standards for projects similar to an Amazon data center previously allowed to pass through without public input. Residents urged the council to extend the moratorium and while they are happy with it, some remain concerned about how the city will handle future projects.

City Administrator Matt Morley said the city wants to get the development standards right and emphasized ensuring Gilroy’s needs are prioritized. He said the time allotted by the moratorium, which expires Sept. 3, 2027 and can be extended once more for another 12 months, allows city employees to look into best practices and connect with residents on the development standards.

“Both are complementary parts of the next steps and both will guide future decisions,” Morley told San José Spotlight. “The goal is to further enhance protections to public health, infrastructure and neighborhood quality of life by addressing issues such as electricity demand, water use, generator emissions, noise and traffic.”

Morley said those goals could not be completed within the initial 45-day moratorium, leading to the extension. The regulations are being coordinated to align with the city’s zoning code update and could come forward before or alongside that update, with the aim to have draft standards ready to review before the moratorium expires next September.

Resident Justin Sweatt said the extended moratorium gives him hope, but he questions if the city is truly going to look after the community’s best interests.

“It’s important that we think about how we’re going to work together with (Amazon Web Services) rather than working for them, which I think we are setting ourselves up to do right now,” Sweatt told San José Spotlight. “We don’t want to be fed lines from the company that’s moving in about how safe they think it is.”

Sweatt said it’s important to him and other residents that the city hear from other communities affected by data centers. Morley said the city has begun to do just that.

“The work includes identifying which zoning districts, if any, would allow data centers and establishing the standards and review process that would apply, with community input and public hearings,” Morley said.

Gilroy councilmembers on Sept. 14 unanimously approved the initial 45-day moratorium, which was set to expire Oct. 29 before Monday’s extension.

The temporary ban doesn’t apply to the Amazon data center under construction on a 56-acre site at 8050 Camino Arroyo. But it does halt a second data center project at Highway 152 and Camino Arroyo, in the pre-application process now, because the city has not received a formal application.

Mayor Greg Bozzo said the moratorium and creation of development standards for data centers is in line with other nearby cities, as well as cities throughout California and the U.S. While neighboring San Jose is working to crear estándares uniformes, una La moratoria parece descartada. a pesar de las preocupaciones de los residentes.

“(Gilroy) residents have asked for more engagement to review the approval, and the council is taking those concerns seriously and this was another step in that direction,” Bozzo previously told San José Spotlight. “By tapping the brakes and slowing the process of future data center applications, we’ll be better tasked to do that.”

The city doesn’t define data centers as a distinct land use, nor does it contain certain development standards that address impacts such as water consumption, electrical grid capacity and demand, backup generator emissions and more. City staff expects to use the moratorium to study and adopt data center-specific zoning and development standards to address these impacts.

Amazon representatives have said the company is investing in local land conservation and water replenishment projects, using 100% carbon-free energy to power the company’s data center, committing to using 100% recycled water by 2030 and covering all infrastructure costs so residents aren’t footing the bill.

Póngase en contacto con Giovanni Albanese Jr. en [email protected].