Advisory committee advances broad Article 7 zoning amendments, including countywide ban on data centers and large battery storage

Steve presented roughly 20 pages of proposed Article 7 text amendments, walking the committee through updates to office (P1), neighborhood-business (B1/B2) and downtown commercial zoning, highway-interchange (B5) standards, and industrial (I1/I2) uses.

Key changes include: clarification that crematoriums relate to funeral-home uses in the office zone; allowing residential uses on any floor in the office zone; specifying that rehabilitation/residential care facilities are conditional uses in P1; tighter limits on large retail and drive-throughs in neighborhood business zones; new downtown map exhibits that restrict first-floor residential in designated storefront areas; a new conditional-use, restrictive standard for vape shops (prohibited adjacent to agricultural or residential uses, 1-mile aerial-radius separation from other vape shops, and setbacks from schools/daycares); and new RV-park size and sewer requirements in B5.

On industrial uses the draft modernizes definitions for light- and heavy-industrial activities, adds definitions for truck stops (narrowing permitted activities and making them conditional), and introduces a two-type battery-storage classification (type one: small-scale; type two: large-scale). Steve said staff had previously prepared lengthy standards for data centers but, following direction from both the city and county and in response to community concerns, the current draft removes the detailed standards and instead prohibits three uses countywide: landfills, data centers, and type-two battery storage facilities. "We don't want data centers here in any size, shape, or form," Steve told the committee, citing concerns about water use, groundwater risk, power-grid impacts, and limited local employment benefits.

Committee members asked clarifying questions about measurement language for the vape-shop separation (the group agreed to add "radius"/aerial-distance wording), the R4→R3 edit in downtown density language, and several typographical corrections. The committee moved and seconded a motion to forward the Article 7 amendments to the planning commission; staff recorded four changes to be made before referral (change R4 to R3 in the downtown special provision, add radius language for vape-shop separation, and fix two typographical errors on pages 758 and 763) and the committee approved the referral by voice vote.

Next steps: staff will incorporate the four noted edits, advertise the draft for public hearing, and present the package to the planning commission for formal review and public comment.