Zoning the AI and Cloud Data Center Boom: How Local Governments Are Regulating Data Centers

Join on Zoom Stream on YouTube Robert PatersonAssociate Professor, Graduate Program in Community and Regional Planning, School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin

Speaker Biography:Robert Paterson is an Associate Professor in the Graduate Program in Community and Regional Planning at the School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin. His research spans environmental policy, land use law, natural resource damage assessment, disaster governance, and sustainable development. He teaches graduate seminars in environmental impact assessment and planning law and is a member of the American Planning Association and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning.

Abstract:Data centers have become one of the most contested land uses in the United States, and local governments are grappling with how best to manage them. This talk draws on two surveys of local zoning in the US: a national random sample of 284 medium-to-large localities and a close examine of 30 jurisdictions chosen to span the range of practice. About one in seven localities nationally has any data-center-specific zoning provision, yet 27 adopted moratoria in a single year of the study. Where localities do specifically regulate data centers, they tend to focus on setbacks, noise, lighting, and cooling water demand, and seldom address air pollution emissions (from colocated energy or back up generation), overall energy demand, eventual reuse or decommissioning, or compliance monitoring. The talk closes with practical steps for localities.