TO: Mayor and Members of City Council
THRU: Jodi Phelps - Assistant City Manager
Dr. Gerald Newton, AICP - Development Services Director
Jennifer C Baptiste, CZO - Planning & Zoning Division Manager
FROM: Craig Harmon, CZO - Senior Planner
DATE: August 10, 2026
RE:Title
TA26-01 - Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) Text Amendments: Telecommunications and Data Storage Facilities (Data Centers)
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COUNCIL DISTRICT(S):
Council District(s)
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Relationship To Strategic Plan:
The FY2025 Strategic Plan frames the City's efforts around providing quality, sustainable public services that help communities thrive, and businesses grow, while promoting a vision of a city that is safe, prosperous, innovative, and unified. The TA26-01 data center amendments support this framework by establishing clear, manageable rules for an emerging, infrastructure-heavy land use, while maintaining a focus on measurable impacts and predictable, transparent review. The package reduces ambiguity in the UDO, aligns entitlements with suitable locations, and adds standards designed to be enforceable over time - exactly the kind of "forward-thinking" and data-informed governance described in the Strategic Plan.
Under Goal I (Safety & Security), the amendments enhance the City's ability to prevent and respond to operational issues that could become public safety concerns if unregulated. Data centers can incorporate high-voltage electrical systems, fuel storage, generator equipment, and other specialized components that operate continuously. By clearly defining their use and applying use-specific standards based on actual impacts - especially noise and operational controls - the ordinance package reduces nuisance conditions that lead to complaints and repeated enforcement actions. It also helps ensure the city can hold operators to objective, verifiable requirements. In short, the amendments promote a safer and more secure community by establishing clea...
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