Data centers are permitted only in unincorporated Utah County and only in the M&G-1 Mining and Grazing or I-1 Industrial zones; Class V giga-scale facilities are excluded.

A Data Center Overlay Zone is required for a site that does not meet the ordinary location requirements. Approval is a legislative decision requiring a public hearing, and the overlay is limited to M&G-1 and I-1 areas where substantial mitigating circumstances are shown.

Facilities must directly abut and obtain primary access from an existing or planned county or state collector or arterial road.

Facilities must be within one mile of a high-voltage transmission corridor or substation capable of providing the facility's required electrical capacity.

Facilities may not be located in areas identified for future municipal annexation under an adopted municipal annexation policy plan.

Facilities must be at least 1,000 feet from residentially zoned property or an existing dwelling.

Facilities are prohibited on prime farmland or farmland of statewide importance and in specified wetlands, floodplains, riparian buffers, critical wildlife habitat, conservation priority areas, and other environmentally sensitive areas.

Data center, accessory, energy-system, and related structures generally require a 100-foot front setback and 50-foot side and rear setbacks, unless larger setbacks apply under other county standards.

Minimum site areas apply by facility class: 50 acres for Classes I and II; at least 50 acres for Class III facilities up to 50 MW with additional acreage for demand above 50 MW; and one acre per megawatt for Classes IV and V.

Facility size must be calculated for the entire data center, including associated development and all phases, rather than separately by building, parcel, phase, or component.

Before applying for a permit, applicants for Class II or larger facilities must provide mailed notice 90 to 180 days before application submission to specified landowners, occupants or entities within one mile, affected entities, county officials, and certain municipalities.

Before submitting a complete application, applicants for Class II or larger facilities must hold at least two public open houses on separate weekday evenings and provide advance notice to property owners within at least one mile.

Applicants must create and maintain a public project website and project-related social media accounts, provide project and contact information, publish engagement and emergency information, and keep the information current through construction and operation.

Applications must include extensive technical and operational documents, including site, stormwater, sound, lighting, water, wastewater, groundwater, thermal, fire, hazardous-materials, infrastructure, traffic, environmental, and emergency-response plans.

Facilities must comply with county noise standards and submit independent acoustical studies, including low-frequency analysis where warranted, with required mitigation and monitoring before operation, within six months after operation begins, at least every three years, and when otherwise required.

Exterior lighting must be shielded, directed inward and downward, prevent glare and light trespass, and remain below 0.1 footcandles at sensitive or residential property lines and 0.5 footcandles at other adjoining property lines.

Once-through and high-loss evaporative cooling systems are prohibited; facilities must use closed-loop, air-cooled, dry-cooled, or qualifying hybrid systems designed to minimize water consumption.

Annual cooling-system water use is limited to 300,000 gallons, and a closed-loop system generally may not be completely drained and refilled more than once every five years.

Initial fills and maintenance refills of closed-loop cooling systems must comply with an approved Water Feasibility Study; a complete drain and refill requires an updated study.

Facilities not served by a public water system must prove that adequate water is legally available and will not adversely affect groundwater, water rights, wells, or surface waters. Proposed withdrawals or consumption of 600,000 gallons or more trigger additional analysis of nearby wells and water users, including impacts within one mile of the property boundary.

Facilities using nonpublic water or onsite wastewater systems must conduct groundwater and wastewater monitoring, submit semiannual reports for the first two years and annual reports thereafter, and promptly report, contain, mitigate, and remediate contamination or other adverse impacts at the operator's expense.

Wastewater plans must identify cooling-system discharges and demonstrate legal treatment and disposal without contaminating or adversely affecting groundwater, surface water, wells, water rights, or surrounding properties.

Co-located power generation must satisfy requirements for an electrical power generation plant, and its generation, fuel, storage, transmission, noise, air-quality, environmental, and emergency impacts must be evaluated cumulatively with the data center.

Grid-served facilities must submit an electric-service provider certification showing adequate capacity, no direct rate increases or surcharges for existing customers, and identification of required upgrades; the applicant must pay the costs of those upgrades.

A traffic and road impact study may be required for construction and operational traffic across all phases and full buildout, and the applicant may have to enter a road-maintenance agreement and repair damage caused by data-center construction traffic.

Roads serving a facility must be paved, connect to the official county, state, or municipal road system, contain no unpaved county sections, meet applicable road standards, and extend along the entire facility frontage.

New or undeveloped roads serving a facility may require amendments to the General Plan, Transportation Master Plan, Official County Road Map, and county road dedications before development approval.

Applicants must submit fire-protection, hazardous-materials, and emergency-response plans, with written review by the Utah County Fire Marshal, the applicable fire agency, and Tooele County Emergency Services.

Applicants must provide an environmental and natural-resources assessment addressing hazards, wetlands, floodplains, wildlife, sensitive species, habitat, corridors, and applicable federal and state permits and consultations.

Thermal exhaust may not create hazards or damage beyond the site and may not raise sustained ambient temperatures at the property line by more than 3 degrees Fahrenheit; violations require corrective action within 30 days.

Applications must disclose all facility emissions and generation sources, model specified pollutants, and provide applicable Utah Division of Air Quality and other agency permits or approvals.

Phased development requires an approved phasing plan covering all phases and final buildout. Approval lasts three years, may be extended once for one year if a phase is completed, and may not remain valid more than six years; later phases are subject to regulations in effect when their permits are submitted.

Applicants must provide a decommissioning and site-restoration plan and financial assurance before receiving a certificate of occupancy, with the assurance updated at least every three years and upon substantial modification or transfer.

Cessation of operations for 12 consecutive months constitutes abandonment and triggers decommissioning unless the County grants an extension for good cause.

The County may require a development agreement imposing additional conditions, infrastructure and utility obligations, mitigation, monitoring, financial guarantees, water requirements, and decommissioning requirements.

The County may require independent third-party review of submitted studies and plans, and the applicant must pay the reasonable costs of that review and may have to provide additional information or revisions.

Before construction, the owner must obtain any applicable zoning compliance permit from the Zoning Administrator.

Significant changes to an approved plan require new notice before approval or implementation, including a change in size category, an increase of more than 10% in approved electrical demand or floor area, certain relocations, expansion onto unapproved land, or unplanned additions or changes to generation or storage facilities.

Class I, II, III, and IV data centers are permitted uses in the M&G-1 Mining and Grazing and I-1 Industrial zones, subject to the ordinance’s standards; Class V data centers are excluded.

The Data Center Overlay Zone provides an alternative approval path for facilities in the M&G-1 or I-1 zones that do not meet the ordinary location requirements, when mitigating conditions are demonstrated by substantial evidence.

The Zoning Administrator must approve a complete data-center application in a zone where the use is permitted when all listed conditions and requirements are satisfied, providing an objective approval process rather than discretionary use approval.

A data-center approval may include incidental accessory structures, facilities, and uses, including administrative, storage, security, cooling, water, wastewater, utility, and stormwater infrastructure.

Data centers may be powered by the electrical grid, co-located power generation, energy-storage systems, or a combination of those sources.

Class I facilities are not subject to the special preapplication mailed-notice and public-open-house requirements that apply to Class II and larger facilities.

Certain modifications may be approved administratively without full new mailed notice, including decreases in facility size, increases of no more than 10 percent that do not change the size category, accessory-structure changes, certain phasing revisions, equipment or interior changes without increased off-site impacts, and equivalent mitigation substitutions.

Transfers of ownership, changes in control, internal reorganizations, lender transfers, operator or lessee changes, and sales of individual pads or phases do not require full re-noticing when the successor assumes the approved plan and continuing obligations.

The ordinance allows phased development, with an approved phasing plan generally valid for three years and eligible for one additional year if at least one phase has been completed during the initial period.

A development agreement is discretionary rather than mandatory for every project; the County may require one when additional conditions are needed, but a compliant project may proceed without one.

Closed-loop, air-cooled, dry-cooled, and hybrid cooling systems are allowed, giving operators multiple permitted cooling technologies.