Fairbanks Would Size a Data Center Like an 800-Seat Venue
The size line Fairbanks staff propose for data centers matches the code's rule for an entertainment facility with 800 or more seats.
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Both say 40,000 square feet.
That rule covers building aesthetics, maintenance and parking lot design. Staff say commenters want rules on water and air quality and on power and noise.
Ordinance 2026-42 would pause land use permits for large-scale data centers through the end of 2027. Staff support it. The Planning Commission hears it Tuesday, November 10th at 6 p.m.
Two of the ordinance's three tests already measure power. Section 4 orders a study of nearly the same list.
One illustrated building, drawn nine ways. The amendment on its floor, the ruler it borrows, the outside that ruler covers, the inside it doesn't, and what happens after Tuesday.
Is a venue's number good enough to stand in until the study reports?
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The Fairbanks North Star Borough Planning Commission meets on November 10th at 6:00 p.m.
The meeting is in the Mona Lisa Drexler Assembly Chambers of the Juanita Helms Administration Center at 907 Terminal Street in Fairbanks.
Ordinance 2026-42, establishing a temporary moratorium on land use permits for large scale data centers, is item G.4 under public hearings on the November 10th agenda.
Mayor Hopkins sponsors Ordinance 2026-42 and Kellen Spillman is the staff contact.
Item G.3 on the same agenda is an ordinance adopting a major update of the borough's Regional Comprehensive Plan, sponsored by the Planning Commission.
The agenda limits citizens' comments to three minutes.
The staff report on Ordinance 2026-42 is from Kellen D. Spillman, Director of the Department of Community Planning.
The staff report is dated November 10th, the day of the hearing.
The staff report says the Assembly referred Ordinance 2026-42 to the Planning Commission on October 26th.
The ordinance's header records its referral to the Planning Commission as October 22nd.
The staff report describes the moratorium as pausing action on land use permits for large-scale data centers for approximately one year, to the end of 2027.
The Community Planning Department supports the ordinance as time to research, draft regulations and run a public process.
The staff report says data centers have become the most highly commented-on topic of the ongoing comprehensive plan update.
Commenters raised water and air quality, power and water supply, noise, vibrations and size among their concerns.
The borough zoning code has no definition for data center.
Data centers are not listed as a permitted or conditional use in any borough zone, and there are no supplemental standards for their impacts.
Warehouse is an undefined use permitted or conditional in the General Commercial, Light Industrial and Heavy Industrial zones.
Under Title 18 a large scale development includes a retail or wholesale building over 55,000 square feet of gross floor area.
Title 18 also defines a large scale development as an entertainment facility over 40,000 square feet seating 800 or more people.
Large scale developments have Title 18 standards for building aesthetics, maintenance and parking lot design.
Staff cites a 2014 statewide ballot initiative that legalized marijuana facilities as a precedent.
The state marijuana licensing process took about 18 months from the vote to the first license and acted as a de facto moratorium, according to staff.
The staff report names the Municipality of Anchorage among places that have researched and passed data center regulations.
Staff writes that the ordinance would pause any large-scale data center development until 2028 or until regulations are adopted.
Staff says the ordinance sets a six month timeline for Community Planning to report to the Planning Commission.
The Community Planning Department has received inquiries about data centers potentially being developed in the borough.
Staff recommends two amendments because large-scale developments and large-scale data centers are expected to be of similar size and impact.
The first amendment adds the word gross before floor area in the data center definition.
The second amendment lowers the floor area trigger from 50,000 to 40,000 square feet.
The Community Planning Department recommends approval of Ordinance 2026-42 with the two amendments.
The ordinance's first trigger is an aggregate peak electrical demand of 5 MW or more.
The ordinance's second trigger is more than 50,000 square feet of floor area devoted to data center operations.
The ordinance's third trigger is onsite electrical generation with a capacity of 5 MW or more.
Section 3 keeps the moratorium in effect through December 31st, 2027, unless the Assembly ends or extends it by ordinance.
Section 4 directs a study of data center impacts on energy usage, air quality, water usage and water quality, and noise pollution.
Section 4 requires the study report and recommendations within six months of the ordinance taking effect.
The ordinance states the borough's Regional Comprehensive Plan was last updated in 2005.
The ordinance says the comprehensive plan update is expected to be finalized in early 2027.
The comprehensive plan draft describes data centers as industrial warehouse-type facilities that have long made up the physical infrastructure of the internet.
The draft says data centers can produce more noise than comparable warehouse facilities and could affect local power and water infrastructure.
The draft quotes the American Planning Association noting that data centers get slotted into broad zoning buckets even though they are packed wall-to-wall with servers instead of pallets.
The draft says data centers have drawn interest in Alaska because the favorable ambient air temperature for cooling gives developers a significant advantage.
The draft describes a process in which the Planning Commission recommends to the Assembly and the Assembly holds its own public hearing several weeks later.
Draft Strategy 73B proposes using the conditional use permit process as an interim way to permit undefined uses until the zoning code has definitions and standards.
The University of Alaska Board of Regents met in Fairbanks on November 4th to 6th on the UAF campus.
Chief Information Technology Officer Ben Shier was scheduled to share the latest version of UA's AI Engaged effort with the regents.
AI Engaged establishes six guiding principles, four investment priorities and five system-wide expectations.
In May the Board of Regents directed UA leadership to develop a cohesive strategy for the university's approach to AI.
A Fairbanks town hall on data centers took place on October 29th at the Wedgewood Resort.
Alaska's News Source reported that about 150 Fairbanks residents attended the town hall.
The Northern Alaska Environmental Center, a co-organizer, says nearly 200 people attended in person.
Organizers say more than 100 additional viewers joined the town hall through online livestreams.
Sarah Hollister, who helped organize the town hall, said our largest concern is that nobody asked us.
Alaska's News Source reported that legislators Scott Kawasaki, Maxine Dibert, Mike Prax and David Guttenberg were among the attendees.
The town hall was billed as Nobody Asked Us, an Alaska town hall about data centers, AI and tax dollars.
Two UAA associate professors wrote in the Anchorage Daily News that Anthropic's Claude generated the initial draft of UA's AI plan.
Five UA faculty replied in the Anchorage Daily News that AI use in drafting the plan was not concealed.
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