The Petersburg Borough Assembly approved two different data center-related measures on Oct. 5. Each item launched the local rule-drafting process.
Assembly members directed the Borough Manager and staff to draft an ordinance for a nine-month moratorium on certain data center projects. Additionally, members directed the manager to draft changes to the borough’s zoning code (Title 19) in order to regulate data centers.
Petersburg’s laws currently lack language about data centers, and the facilities need a lot of power to operate. In September, the local Planning Commission asked the Assembly for a year-long moratorium on issuing applications or permits for data centers, but the vote failed in a 3–3 stalemate.
Supportive assembly members wanted to pause any potential data center projects while the Borough develops regulations. Those opposed said the requested year-long freeze wasn’t necessary because there are regulations already being developed for large power users, plus existing utility safeguards, like power sale agreements, that protect the town’s electric grid.
“I was looking at it from a grid lens,” Vice Mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor said at the Oct. 5 meeting. “But, there is some vulnerability there.”
Recommending a moratorium on certain data center development
Stanton Gregor proposed a different temporary moratorium for certain data centers, two weeks after opposing the Commission’s request.
His recommendation considers a point that was brought up by a fellow assembly member: What about borough protections outside of Petersburg’s electrical grid?
After looking into it, Stanton Gregor said he learned that, technically, a data center that runs on diesel-generated power could bypass the municipal utility’s grid, and its safeguards.
He called that possibility “probably far-fetched,” but worth noting.
“We just want to be as proactive as we can,” Stanton Gregor said.
Stanton Gregor’s proposal recommends restricting data centers from using on-site power generation or facilities that don’t use a closed-loop cooling system, with a nine-month pause on issuing building permits for them. During that time, staff could look into facility impacts and make suggestions to address them.
In other words, for nine months, the Borough would not allow a data center that’s operation depends on non-grid power generation or significant water use. Developers could still apply for a building permit if their project would be on Petersburg’s grid.
There was debate over language nuances in Stanton Gregor’s written recommendation memo. However, the proposal was just the first step of the process to get a moratorium created; the actual moratorium comes next, in the form of an ordinance.
“I am not saying this is a perfect [proposal],” Stanton Gregor said. “But I look forward to, if this passes, to working with staff to get something before us that we can all find consensus on. It’s been a pretty divisive issue. I’d love to find consensus.”
The Assembly unanimously approved Stanton Gregor’s recommended moratorium.
Next, Borough staff will draft an ordinance to put the moratorium in place.
Preparing zoning rules for regulating data centers
The other proposal about data centers came from Assembly Member Jeff Meucci.
It directs the Borough Manager, with any necessary “assistance from outside consultants,” to prepare an ordinance for regulating data centers.
“I know the [Utility Director] is working on a large-scale electrical user update, but I think the ordinance needs to be specific to data centers,” Meucci said.
If the ordinance is adopted, it’d set rules for the facilities and “establish provisions for governing data centers” in Petersburg’s zoning code.
Vice Mayor Stanton Gregor supported Meucci’s proposal.
“This could run wonderfully concurrent with the moratorium ordinance as it goes through,” Stanton Gregor said. “I understand the language will be a work in progress, but I’m glad you put this on the agenda, Member Mucci.”
Within the data center debate is the aspect of where and how regulations can be enforced.
Updating rules, limits
The borough spans thousands of miles beyond town proper.
In Stanton Gregor’s moratorium proposal, he noted the intent to ultimately apply potential data center regulations across the entire borough, except the City of Kupreanof.
That’s different from the moratorium that failed in a stalemate; it was limited to the Borough’s municipal service area, which ends roughly nine miles south of town.
When Petersburg became a borough in 2013, it incorporated 3,829 square miles of land from Mitkof and Kupreanof Islands up toward Juneau. But, because the zoning code only applies within its municipal service area, the Borough municipality wouldn’t be able to enforce potential regulations outside of that limit.
However, that could change. The Borough decided earlier this year to start the process for extending zoning regulations borough-wide (exempting the City of Kupreanof) by rewriting the zoning code.
Stanton Gregor also said Meucci’s proposal could be a necessary approach, as it asks to prepare amendments to Petersburg’s zoning code (Title 19).
“This timeline could parallel that very well because, adjusting Title 19 to include holding zones outside of Service Area One, we’d need to go this approach,” Stanton Gregor added.
Assembly Member Bob Martin called getting the ordinance process on data centers going, “a good idea.”
“It’s going to be really hard to write an ordinance that doesn’t become outdated within months, but we got to get something on the books,” Martin said. “So let’s get going.”
The Assembly approved Meucci’s proposal unanimously.
Once drafted, both the moratorium and any zoning changes will need to return for further Assembly consideration, and public hearings, before either measure can take effect.
