Public hearing on data center regulations set
The public hearing on the county’s data center regulations bill that was canceled earlier this month has officially been rescheduled and will now be heard at a special meeting of the Nye County Commission in October.
During the Tuesday, Sept. 15 meeting, Nye County Commissioner Debra Strickland explained that the original public hearing had been canceled because the Nye County District Attorney’s Office had not had a chance to complete its legal review of the bill prior to the previously set Sept. 14 date. She then made the motion to set a new date and time for Thursday, October 8 at 10 a.m. at the Nye County Commissioners’ Chambers in Pahrump and Tonopah.
The motion passed 4-0 with commissioner Ian Bayne abstaining.
Nye County Bill No. 2026-14 proposes to amend Nye County Code Title 17 by adding land use regulations, special use permit requirements and development standards for data center facilities in all areas of the county except for Pahrump, where data centers have been banned.
Under the bill, a data center is defined as, “A facility or group of facilities, including one or more buildings, used primarily to house computer systems, servers, network equipment, data storage and associated electrical, mechanical and cooling infrastructure for the processing, storage, management and transmission of digital data, together with all accessory structures and equipment that are a direction functional part of the facility, including without limitation electrical substations, backup electrical generation, fuel storage, battery energy storage, cooling systems, water treatment and storage, security infrastructure and administrative space.”
The definition goes on to state that the term “data center” does not apply to renewable energy generation facilities, above-ground transmission lines, battery energy storage systems, electrical substations or gen-ties except when those facilities are an accessory to or located on the same site as a data center. It further stipulates that the term does not extend to server rooms, telecommunications closets or other such computing facilities that are a part of a non-data-center use.
The 46-page bill addresses an array of particulars, from the limitation of data centers to light and heavy industrial zones and requirements for both a special use permit and development agreement to transferability, variances, site plans, required studies and reports, water adequacy and consumption, construction and development standards and more.
To view the bill in full, visit NyeCountyNV.gov and click on the Meeting Center link. The bill is included with item #24 of the commission’s Sept. 15 agenda.
The public hearing can be attended in person at 2100 Walt Williams Drive in Pahrump or 101 Radar Road in Tonopah.
The meeting is also available via teleconference by following the instructions posted on each commission agenda.
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com
