Mayor Jerry Dyer will co-sponsor a councilmember’s push to prohibit data centers in Fresno, his office announced Wednesday, a day before the city council takes up the measure.
The statement puts Dyer alongside northeast Fresno City Councilmember Nick Richardson, whose resolution directs staff to write a 10-year citywide ban into the city’s Development Code.
Dyer said data centers “are not an appropriate land use for the City of Fresno under current technologies.”
Dyer said he had attended presentations on data centers over the past year and spoken with mayors in cities where they have been built. He cited electricity and water demand, cooling systems, constant mechanical noise, and the small number of permanent jobs the facilities create relative to the land they occupy.
“I want to see land in Fresno, especially within South SEDA, used to create additional housing and good-paying jobs in industries such as advanced manufacturing,” Dyer said.
The statement says zoning in Fresno currently does not allow data centers. Richardson’s proposal seeks to close a loophole which allows data centers to be authorized by a [Planning] Director’s determination.
City staff are also working on a new development code for the land in the Southeast Development Area specific plan, which has yet to receive approval from the city council.
Dyer’s statement said that the new code for SEDA would also ban data centers.
