Fresno leaders consider 10-year ban on data centers
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Fresno City Council is set to discuss a proposal to ban new data centers in Fresno for 10 years on Thursday, bringing debate over artificial intelligence-related facilities to the forefront of local government.
The proposed resolution, authored by Councilmember Nick Richardson, would begin restricting new data center development in the city. Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said he supports stopping such projects.
"I've come to the conclusion that it's probably not the best use of our land in Fresno and the reasons are very simple. Number one there's an amount of water in which they use currently, a lot of electricity. They impact your local grid.
They take up a lot of land and space, and they don't create very many jobs for that community," Dyer said.
According to the Data Center Map website, Fresno currently has three data centers. Sources tell Action News that those facilities are relatively small and focused on internet service.
Richardson said his resolution is meant to close loopholes and address what he describes as speculation and misinformation about the issue.
"Whether it's something like the measure C replacement tax measure, it's been proposed that that's really to fund data centers to me by constituents, which is incorrect. That SEDA is really a shadow program to enable the building of data centers," Richardson said.
Councilmember Miguel Arias said residents' concerns are legitimate and stem from a lack of transparency and trust.
"Some in the administration have been pushing for research and development, but they won't define what research and development means," Arias said.
While Arias supports a ban on data centers, he said he is concerned the proposed resolution does not take effect quickly enough.
He is also calling for any nondisclosure agreements between the city and data center companies to be made public.
During an interview, Arias said, "I'm aware of city staff signing multiple non-disclosure agreements about multiple issues."
Dyer disputed concerns about potential discussions with data center companies, saying no companies have contacted his administration.
"At any time, there was never an intent on my part or anyone in my administration to open up data centers," Dyer said.
"Nor have I talked with or tried to sway any type of data mining or data center in Fresno," he added.
In addition to Thursday's proposed resolution, Dyer said he has been working on a separate development code change that would ban data centers. He plans to bring that proposal before the City Council in December.
The mayor said the code change would define what constitutes a data center and prevent such facilities from being built in Fresno.
"They could be a number of things from cryptocurrency validation to anything that deals with high-performance computing," Dyer said.
"We don't want data centers to consume the electricity and the water that we can utilize for other things in our city and in our county," he said.
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