Major data centers are prohibited in all zoning districts except the Heavy Industrial (HI) and Light Industrial (LI) zones, where they may be considered only as conditional uses.

A major data center in the HI zone requires both a Conditional Use Permit and a Board-approved Resource Impact Mitigation Agreement.

A major data center in the LI zone requires a Conditional Use Permit, a Board-approved Resource Impact Mitigation Agreement, and an express Board finding that the facility is compatible with surrounding uses and will not impair specified agricultural, residential, water, public-service, or transportation interests.

A major data center may not be approved administratively or solely through a building permit, zoning certificate, business license, change-of-occupancy approval, or other ministerial approval.

Construction, establishment, expansion, intensification, operation, or material modification of a major data center requires prior County approval of a Conditional Use Permit and execution and recording of a Resource Impact Mitigation Agreement; other permits cannot be issued until appeal periods expire or appeals are resolved.

Changes in ownership, operator, tenant, technology, cooling method, utility capacity, electric load, water source, backup generation, battery storage, or use category require County review, and increases exceeding 5 percent in specified demands or physical impacts require approval as material modifications.

A major-data-center application is incomplete unless it includes detailed project information and professional studies covering electric power, water rights and wastewater, public facilities and services, fire and emergency response, noise and visual impacts, and decommissioning.

Applicants must submit a proposed Resource Impact Mitigation Agreement and financial security sufficient to cover construction, monitoring, reporting, mitigation, decommissioning, restoration, and warranty obligations.

The County may require independent professional review of applications and technical materials, and the applicant must reimburse the County for those review costs before hearings, permit issuance, and certificates of occupancy.

The Board may approve a major data center only after making written, evidence-supported findings on compatibility, legally available and adequate infrastructure, proportionality of conditions, and required state, federal, utility, water-right, environmental, fire, highway, and public-service approvals.

Every major data center must secure public or private capacity equal to at least 125 percent of its Maximum Project Demand for electric power and water, and at least 125 percent of reasonably attributable demand for wastewater, fire-flow, roads, drainage, emergency response, and other affected services.

The 125 percent electric and water requirements are calculated using the greatest applicable projected, contracted, connected, full-buildout, or actual metered demand, and a facility may not receive a certificate of occupancy, begin operations, energize computing loads, or increase an approved phase until the requirement is satisfied.

Applicants must pay 125 percent of the County-approved estimate for required public improvements and mitigation, with the additional 25 percent serving as a contingency and capacity-protection reserve.

The Board may impose an annual resource offset, potentially based on 25 percent of actual annual electric and water consumption, when supported by a fee study, agreement findings, utility agreement, or other substantial evidence.

Major data centers must use the lowest-water cooling technology reasonably available; once-through cooling using potable, domestic-well, municipal, or groundwater is prohibited.

Evaporative, adiabatic, and other water-assisted cooling is prohibited unless the applicant provides clear and convincing evidence that it will not impair specified water resources or users and satisfies the 125 percent water-capacity requirement.

Major data centers must install County-approved water meters, retain water-use records for at least 10 years, and immediately report excessive demand, cooling-related abnormal water use, spills, unauthorized discharges, well-interference complaints, or water restrictions.

Applicants must pay project-attributable electric infrastructure costs, including utility extensions, substations, transformers, transmission or distribution upgrades, right-of-way work, crossings, and County inspection or professional-review costs.

Major data centers must maintain an emergency-curtailment plan and, unless the Board approves another standard, be capable of reducing nonessential computing load by at least 25 percent within four hours during specified emergencies.

Backup generators must meet enclosure, screening, air, fire, building, fuel-storage, and noise requirements; routine testing is limited to 10:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays, unless the County approves another schedule.

Battery-energy storage and uninterruptible-power-supply systems require compliance with adopted building and fire codes and review by the fire code official or affected fire district before installation.

Applicants must provide required fire-flow, hydrants, water storage, access roads, emergency systems, hazardous-material controls, and response plans, and must fund lawfully attributable project-specific emergency-response, training, equipment, and professional-review costs.

Major data centers must maintain a 24-hour emergency contact with authority to shut down equipment and provide access and technical information, and must provide annual emergency-response training when requested.

Applicants must submit a traffic impact study unless waived in writing by the County Engineer and must pay for and complete required road, bridge, access, traffic-control, and related improvements before creating the associated construction or operational impacts.

Unless stricter limits or an alternative standard is approved, continuous operational noise may not exceed 50 dBA Leq at residential property lines during the day or 45 dBA Leq at night.

Exterior lighting must be fully shielded and downward directed, limited to safety and security needs, and prevented from spilling onto adjacent residential, agricultural, or public-road properties; the Board may require additional screening and setbacks.

Outdoor storage of obsolete equipment, pallets, containers, batteries, scrap, or similar materials is prohibited unless expressly approved and screened through the Conditional Use Permit.

Every major data center must submit a certified annual report by March 31 covering resource use, demand, wastewater, cooling, generators, emergencies, curtailments, complaints, violations, changes, and compliance; late or incomplete reporting may support enforcement, suspension, or revocation.

Before permits or a certificate of occupancy are issued, the applicant must provide financial security approved by the Board and sufficient to cover 125 percent of estimated public improvements, mitigation, monitoring, emergency-response, decommissioning, hazardous-material removal, stabilization, and restoration costs.

Financial security may be separated by obligation and must be reviewed annually and adjusted for inflation, changed conditions, phased expansion, equipment changes, or increased decommissioning costs.

A major data center is deemed abandoned after substantially all computing operations cease for 180 consecutive days, unless the County approves a longer period, and abandonment triggers decommissioning and site-restoration requirements.

The Resource Impact Mitigation Agreement runs with the land and binds owners, operators, successors, assigns, tenants, and affiliates; transfers or changes in ownership, operation, tenancy, or beneficial ownership require a County-approved written assumption agreement.

The County may suspend expansion, additional load, increased water demand, additional occupancy, or new phases for exceeding approved demand, failing to maintain capacity or security, missing reports, or failing mitigation obligations, and violations may lead to stop-work orders, permit withholding or revocation, penalties, and injunctive relief.

Approvals do not create a vested right to exceed approved demands or operating characteristics and do not guarantee continued utility capacity; the 125 percent requirement may not be waived except through a formal ordinance amendment or Board-approved alternative mitigation package adopted after a public hearing.

Accessory data centers are allowed only when incidental to a lawful principal use, primarily serve on-site functions, and remain below 500 kilowatts of information-technology load, 2,500 gallons per day of total water demand, and 5,000 square feet of equipment-room area; cryptocurrency mining, AI model training, and third-party colocation are excluded.

A facility becomes a major data center if it meets any listed threshold, including 500 kilowatts of information-technology load, 1 megawatt of total connected or contracted electric load, 2,500 gallons per day of water demand, 5,000 square feet of server or data-hall area, water-assisted cooling, backup generation exceeding 1 megawatt, fire-code-reviewed battery storage, cryptocurrency mining, AI model training, or aggregated phased or affiliated development.

Accessory data centers are treated as an accessory use and may operate without the major-data-center conditional-use process, provided they remain below 500 kilowatts of information-technology load, 2,500 gallons per day of water demand, and 5,000 square feet of equipment-room area and comply with other applicable requirements. Cryptocurrency mining, AI model training, and third-party colocation are excluded.

Major data centers may be considered as conditional uses in the Heavy Industrial zone, subject to a Conditional Use Permit and Resource Impact Mitigation Agreement. They may also be considered in the Light Industrial zone if the Board makes the required compatibility and impact findings.

The regulation allows phased permits with enforceable demand limits, including use of temporary water arrangements when expressly approved by the Board. Each phase may proceed once the 125 percent capacity requirement for that phase is satisfied.

The 125 percent capacity requirement can be satisfied through several methods, including funding, construction, dedication, reimbursement, reservation, or offsets of infrastructure and resource capacity. This provides flexibility in how a project establishes power, water, wastewater, fire-flow, road, drainage, and emergency-response capacity.

Unused financial security may be released after required improvements are completed, accepted, and their warranty periods expire, although amounts may be retained for monitoring, maintenance, emergency-response impacts, or decommissioning.

An alternative mitigation package may replace the 125 percent requirement, but only through a formal ordinance amendment or written Board findings adopted after a public hearing, and only if the alternative is lawful, enforceable, and proportionate.

A data center may avoid being deemed abandoned for longer than 180 days if the County approves an extended period because of repair, reconstruction, force majeure, or market conditions.