A memo from a St. Louis agency this week proposed a temporary ban on new data center development within the city.
The memo, written by St. Louis Planning and Urban Design Agency Executive Director Don Roe, said the city's nearly 70-year-old zoning code cannot adequately manage the complex land use concerns brought by data center projects.
“A time-limited moratorium would mean that no new permits would be accepted while the City develops a full understanding of the issue and develops quality land use, environmental, and other regulations,” Roe wrote. “This path may very well be in the public’s best interest.”
Data centers continue to pop up nationwide. Last month, St. Charles officials put a yearlong ban in place on any data center development after public outcry over a secretive $1 billion data center proposal.
In the memo, Roe writes that the city needs to act quickly to establish rules for data center development within city limits, as its aging zoning code cannot adequately address a type of land use not considered in the 1950s.
“Because of the current zoning code structure and the work already underway to rewrite our zoning code, this potential amendment likely would not adequately manage the full complexity of the land use concerns,” Roe wrote. “But an amendment can help ensure data centers are not permitted in inappropriate locations in the interim.”
Until then, a temporary ban may be in the public’s interest, he writes.
“Such a moratorium could be full (like in St. Charles), or partial (e.g., excluding data centers adaptively reusing buildings, and/or under some square footage in size), and may remain in place until either the Zoning Upgrade is complete or until other regulations are adequately established,” he wrote.
Roe included the memo as an informational item ahead of a Planning Commission meeting scheduled for Wednesday, at which board members will discuss data centers in the city. The commission will meet at 5 p.m. at the Abrams Building, 1520 Market St.
Currently, Roe said there are at least 12 data centers in the city, as well as a newly proposed project on Green Street property near the vacant Armory building.
Roe also said the city should consider “rapidly” enacting zoning regulations to address the land use concerns brought by data centers. Roe suggests an amendment to ensure data centers are not put in "inappropriate locations” in the interim and an update to a benchmarking ordinance that would ensure transparency over large data centers’ energy use.
The potential energy demand of these data centers is unprecedented. In the memo, Roe writes that the proposed data center in Midtown could use as much energy as 13,000 homes, “roughly the number of homes as in Shaw, Tower Grove South, and Tower Grove East combined.”
State utility regulators are currently considering proposals from Ameren and Evergy on how electric companies will work with these huge data centers. State lawmakers passed legislation this year requiring the utilities to develop terms of service to ensure regular customers’ rates don’t rise because of data centers.
In the memo, Roe also called into question the long-term benefits of data centers.
“Like any new construction project, a data center’s construction will create valuable jobs for the period of construction,” Roe wrote. “However, permanent jobs associated with data centers are very limited; compared to traditional industrial uses, very large data centers require only a small number of people to secure and manage the building.”
St. Charles’ one-year ban
Last month, the St. Charles City Council unanimously passed its own one-year ban on data centers. The resolution puts a moratorium on the acceptance of new applications for data centers.
The move came after St. Charles residents strongly opposed a data center project up for approvals to be built near Highway 370. Neighbors turned out to public meetings to voice their concerns over the project’s secrecy and its impact on water and energy.
The project’s developer, CRG, pulled its application for a conditional use permit. CRG President Christopher P. McKee said the company would work “to incorporate recent community feedback” and come back with a revised proposal for the project.
The end user of the project has still not been named, but St. Louis Public Radio found documents linking the project to Google.
St. Charles officials signed nondisclosure agreements with Spark Innovations, which was involved in the early stages of a recently unveiled Google data center in West Memphis, Arkansas. The managers of that LLC have also been involved in the early stages of Google data center projects in Kansas City, Indianapolis and northern Virginia.
