Data centers may be established only in the Technology Industries zoning district, in specifically designated areas covered by the Regionally Significant Development Zone Overlay, or in another district that expressly allows them.

Every data center facility requires a conditional use permit; no data center, co-located power-generation facility, or data-center microgrid may be established, expanded, or substantially modified by right.

The Planning Commission is the Land Use Authority for all data-center applications and must hold a public hearing before final action.

The ordinance generally prohibits a data center facility or campus with maximum coincident electrical demand of 300 megawatts or more at full build-out, including attempts to reach that threshold through separate phases, parcels, meters, tenants, owners, or applications.

A low-emission power-supply adjustment may allow a facility or campus between 300 and 900 megawatts, but only if adjusted demand is below 300 megawatts, firming generation supplies no more than 20 percent of annual electricity, emissions stay below specified grid-equivalent benchmarks, a development agreement establishes enforceable limits, and other conditions are met; facilities above 900 megawatts remain prohibited.

Data centers must maintain a 250-foot setback from other property lines and public rights-of-way for buildings, generation facilities, energy storage, substations, switchyards, and similar high-impact facilities.

A thermal buffer must separate regulated facilities from off-site sensitive receptors: 1,750 feet for small facilities, 2,500 feet for large facilities, and 3,000 feet for hyperscale facilities or facilities with co-located generation or a microgrid. The distance may generally be reduced by no more than 50 percent only after specified independent-reviewed thermal and noise studies, and it may be increased if the studies show noncompliance.

The facility may not increase ambient air temperature at the nearest off-site sensitive receptor by more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit under specified summer, low-wind, and continuous-operation conditions.

Buildings and major support facilities are generally limited to 60 feet in height unless the underlying zone allows more and the Planning Commission finds that the increased height will not create specified unmitigated impacts.

Applications for large or hyperscale facilities, facilities with co-located generation, and facilities with microgrids require a pre-application conference; the County may require one for small facilities based on site conditions or potential impacts.

Applicants must submit extensive technical, infrastructure, environmental, fiscal, ownership, tenant, utility, tax, public-information, and decommissioning materials before an application is complete.

Large, hyperscale, 100-megawatt-or-more, co-located-generation, microgrid, and campus-related projects must provide cumulative-impact analyses covering shared water, power, transportation, air, emergency services, public infrastructure, and other affected systems.

The County may require independent technical review, with the applicant responsible for the County's actual and reasonable review costs; specified independent reviews are mandatory for large or hyperscale projects and certain projects involving groundwater, combustion generation, microgrids, or 100 megawatts or more.

Cooling systems must use closed-loop or air cooling as the principal heat-rejection method. Open-loop or evaporative cooling may not be the principal cooling method, and potable water may be used for cooling only when reclaimed or other non-potable water is not lawfully available and technically feasible.

Closed-loop cooling is subject to a default annual make-up-water limit of 2,500 gallons per megawatt of approved maximum coincident demand, unless an independent site-specific study justifies a different amount and the County approves it.

The County must establish enforceable annual, peak-month, and peak-day water-use limits by source, and operating above those limits is a violation requiring corrective action and potentially a permit amendment.

Facilities must submit and implement drought-response plans, including staged reductions in consumptive water use; during declared drought conditions, the County may prohibit or further restrict potable water use for cooling.

Facilities must meet noise limits of 50 dBA Leq at the sending-property line and 45 dBA Leq at the nearest noise-sensitive receptor during nighttime hours, with additional penalties or mitigation for tonal, impulsive, or low-frequency noise.

Large and hyperscale facilities require independent noise verification at least every three years and after specified substantial modifications; facilities with at least 100 megawatts, baseload generation, or a microgrid must install a permanent Class 1 sound monitor and provide quarterly public summaries.

Exterior lighting must be shielded and directed downward, generally use lighting of 3,000 Kelvin or lower, and not exceed 0.1 foot-candle at a property line; nighttime lighting must be reduced when consistent with safety and security.

Backup generators may operate only during emergencies, except for approved routine testing and commissioning; generator testing is time-limited near residential property, multiple units generally may not be tested simultaneously, schedules must be posted, and audible testing requires at least 48 hours' notice.

Combustion generators and other emission sources must comply with applicable permits and use the highest commercially available emissions-control tier or certification applicable at permit issuance, unless the State Division of Air Quality requires or approves otherwise.

Facilities with energy storage must comply with applicable construction, fire, and NFPA standards and, where applicable, provide UL 9540 listing and UL 9540A or equivalent fire-propagation testing, along with required separation, monitoring, ventilation, suppression, and emergency-response measures.

Before a building permit, facilities must demonstrate that facility-attributable electric-generation, transmission, distribution, substation, and related infrastructure costs will not be shifted to existing retail customers, generally through an executed utility arrangement or legally compliant self-supply arrangement.

Applicants must provide fire-flow analyses, hazardous-material inventories, emergency-response plans, agency reviews, and funding plans for additional fire-service, emergency-response, equipment, training, water-supply, and mutual-aid needs attributable to the facility.

Facilities must submit annual compliance reports and public plain-language summaries covering water, electricity, generators, emissions, noise, lighting, traffic, incidents, employment, infrastructure obligations, financial participation, mitigation, and compliance with approval conditions.

Operators must report specified fires, explosions, battery thermal-runaway events, hazardous-material releases, significant spills, air-permit events, extended generator operation, and other material incidents within one hour when practicable, followed by written reports within 24 hours and 10 business days.

Exceeding approved electrical, water, floor-area, IT-space, noise, emissions, thermal, generator, or other limits is a violation; the County may require immediate curtailment, impose civil penalties, suspend activities, and ultimately suspend or revoke the conditional use permit after a show-cause hearing.

Each facility must provide a decommissioning plan and financial assurance before grading or building permits, generally equal to the approved decommissioning cost estimate; the estimate must include at least a 15 percent contingency and the assurance must be reviewed at least every three years and after specified changes.

Cessation of facility operations for nine consecutive months constitutes abandonment and triggers decommissioning unless the County grants an extension for good cause; construction that stops for nine consecutive months can similarly constitute abandonment of the affected improvements.

A conditional use permit expires if substantial construction has not commenced within two years after final approval, unless a different period or an approved good-cause extension applies.

Substantial modifications require the same approval process as the original project and can be triggered by increases of more than 10 percent in approved demand, water use, floor area, or IT white space, changes in cooling or generation, material infrastructure or ownership changes, or material changes in regulated impacts.

Applicants and operators must reimburse the County for actual and reasonable independent technical, legal, engineering, fiscal, assessment, acoustical, fire, monitoring, notice, complaint-verification, and enforcement costs that are reasonably necessary for the application or facility.

Data centers may be established in the Technology Industries zoning district, in designated areas covered by the Regionally Significant Development Zone Overlay, or in any other zoning district that expressly allows them by ordinance.

A data center allowed as a conditional use must be approved when reasonable conditions can mitigate its reasonably anticipated detrimental effects; complete elimination of those effects is not required.

The Planning Commission is designated as the Land Use Authority for all data centers, providing a single decision-making body for small, large, hyperscale, co-located-generation, microgrid, and RSDZ projects.

Data center applications may be phased, with later phases evaluated separately and allowed to proceed after updated studies, infrastructure completion, monitoring, or other phase-specific conditions are satisfied.

A facility may use a low-emission power-supply adjustment to have its large or hyperscale classification determined using adjusted electrical demand rather than total maximum demand, if it is predominantly supplied by non-combustion generation, firming power supplies no more than 20% of annual energy, and emissions remain below the grid-equivalent baseline.

A data center or campus that would otherwise reach the 300-megawatt mega-facility threshold may be approved up to 900 megawatts under the low-emission power-supply adjustment if adjusted demand is below 300 megawatts, emissions meet the stricter limit, a development agreement establishes enforceable caps and monitoring, and utility-cost protections and thermal standards are satisfied.

The County may reduce the otherwise applicable thermal buffer distance by up to 50% when independent thermal and noise studies demonstrate compliance with the applicable thermal and noise standards.

Land-use review may occur under the Military Installation Development Authority or another entity with independent land-use authority when the facility is located within that entity's project area, rather than through the County's process.

Within an approved Regionally Significant Development Zone, the County may coordinate data center review with the community reinvestment agency and applicable RSDZ documents, while the RSDZ may provide separate financing, revenue participation, and contractual implementation mechanisms.

The County and an applicant may negotiate a voluntary host community benefit agreement or development agreement providing incentives, tax-increment participation, public-infrastructure assistance, revenue sharing, rebates, grants, workforce commitments, community-benefit funds, or other public financial participation when authorized by law.

The County may support data center infrastructure through development agreements, improvement agreements, reimbursement agreements, participation agreements, impact fees, service contracts, special-district arrangements, or other lawful mechanisms for infrastructure and service mitigation.

The ordinance requires facility-attributable generation, transmission, distribution, substation, and related infrastructure costs to be assigned to the facility rather than shifted to existing retail electric customers, allowing approval when the applicant provides the required utility contract, tariff, private-generation arrangement, or other documentation.

Routine maintenance, server replacement, like-kind or more-efficient equipment replacement, qualifying interior alterations, and tenant changes do not require a land-use amendment when the facility remains within its approved limits and conditions.

A facility may receive a minor amendment through the Community Development Director when the change does not trigger the ordinance's thresholds or materially increase regulated impacts; changes that reduce electrical demand, water use, noise, or emissions may qualify.

A conditional use permit may be transferred to a new owner or operator after notice, disclosure, confirmation of continuous financial assurance, and acceptance of the existing approval conditions and obligations.

An approved conditional use permit generally remains available for two years before expiring, and the Land Use Authority may grant an extension for good cause when standards remain satisfied and circumstances have not materially changed.

The ordinance allows clean-energy, renewable-supply, storage, emissions, demand-response, and grid-support commitments offered by an applicant to become enforceable approval conditions, giving the applicant a defined way to obtain approval by committing to measurable performance requirements.