MISSOULA — Data centers are one of the main topics of discussion across the country right now. After the saga of a data center being killed in Bonner, both the City of Missoula and Missoula County are looking to mitigate the impacts.
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Missoula County passed a year-long moratorium on data centers a couple of months ago, and now the city is looking to update its zoning code in anticipation of more data centers potentially coming in.
“Right now, the current definition just looks at sort of the amount of equipment. It specifies it's a data center if that occupies the majority of the floor area, which practically, planners haven't made much sense of that,” said Cassie Tripard, planning manager for the City of Missoula.
Tripard says the amendment mainly clarifies what the city considers a data center.
The amendment will define a data center as essentially a standalone building whose primary purpose is to house servers and telecommunications equipment, something currently not allowed under the city’s zoning code.
“Data centers separate from that primary use are allowed in the Industrial 2 Zoning District. However, that zoning district's not currently applied to the map, so it would require a rezoning process through city council,” said Tripard.
The amendment does allow in-house server space, meaning that if the building’s primary purpose is offices, it can also have a server room.
But the amendment has raised unease for one local business.
“In my view, they're trying to stop Meta and other large-scale companies coming in and doing huge deployments. This would really just hinder local AI companies, local IT companies and companies looking at doing something cool in their space, honestly,” said Joshua Rhines, founder and CEO of CubCloud AI.
Rhines runs a local AI company that aims to dilute the power of major AI companies by providing local servers and AI agents.
He says that while the amendment may not hinder his business currently, it may potentially hamper expansion.
“If it was passed as written or as discussed, it absolutely would make expansion within the city and county very difficult,” said Rhines.
The final vote on the amendment will take place next Monday, Oct. 5, at the city council’s regular meeting.
