‘This town is not ready’: Boulder City planners vote against data center

The Boulder City Planning Commission voted Wednesday evening to recommend the City Council reject a controversial proposal to build a 88.5-acre data center miles away from the bathtub ring at Lake Mead that symbolizes drought in the American West.

A more than 3-hour meeting at Boulder City Hall brought out dozens of residents, most of whom spoke to their larger fears of the relatively understudied potential effects of AI data centers, including energy and water demands, noise or air pollution and heat production. Residents hosted a small protest prior to the meeting to show their disapproval.

All but one of the volunteer planning commissioners, Steven Morris, voted against the proposed data center, which would be located west of U.S. Highway 95 and south of Interstate 11, next to its existing solar facility.

Morris said his vote was neither an endorsement or a denial, though he felt the proposal had met the “low threshold” for inclusion in the city’s land management process.

“Regardless of how I personally feel about the project or the applicant, this town is not ready,” said Planning Commission Chair Lorene Krumm. “It’s not.”

Officials needs to establish proactive ground rules for data centers through structured changes to city laws before a project should move forward, Krumm added.

The City Council will vote on the data center proposal again at a later date, city spokeswoman Lisa LaPlante said. Representatives for the Texas-based developer, Skylar Capital Management, appeared alongside Las Vegas attorney Linda Bullen to discuss their application.

Gerald Balboa, the company’s chief operating officer, acknowledged city residents’ strong feelings.

“We’ve heard these concerns too, and we’re pleased to say that we’ve adapted the project to meet these concerns with hopefully satisfactory answers across the board, ” Balboa said.

‘That is absurd’

It’s not yet clear how council members are leaning on the vote, but an online petition against the data center has garnered more than 5,900 signatures as of Thursday.

Not pertaining to this particular project, Boulder City residents will vote this November on whether data centers are an acceptable use of land for parts of the Eldorado Valley, a stretch of city-owned land south of the town boundary.

In a previous interview, Boulder City Mayor Joe Hardy told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that data centers represent untapped potential for revenue, especially with officials’ power to ensure that they wouldn’t use Colorado River water for server cooling or source its power from the city-owned utility.

According to the developer, a potential 90-year land lease could contribute about 12 percent of the city’s operating budget.

For the closed-loop cooling system, the developer’s project manager Rick Lammers said the majority of the water would be a one-time fill up of 400,000 gallons of water, which could be trucked in from elsewhere. After that, kitchens and bathrooms at the data center facility would require about 2,000 gallons per day, Lammers said.

Planning Commissioner Matt Di Teresa, who said he is a retired operating engineer, cast doubt on the idea that the closed-loop system for cooling wouldn’t need to be refilled.

“I want to be respectful, but that is absurd … you’re going to be constantly refilling the system,” Di Teresa said. “That’s just the nature of the animal. That’s the way these systems work.”

The company disagreed with that assertion.

Mixed opinions, but most unconvinced

For a while now, it’s been impossible to miss signs in protest of data centers in people’s front yards and in businesses downtown. The Flamingo Inn Motel sign proclaims “Dear City Council No Data Centers in BC.”

Boulder City resident and land surveyor Nick Ariotti said he had spoken with the developer himself early on in the process and believed that the company had the best interest of the city in mind.

“This isn’t about a company trying to get rich,” Ariotti said, prompting laughter from the packed audience.

One representative of a Southern Nevada worker’s union spoke in support of the data center because of regional job growth, as well.

Most others aren’t so convinced.

Brynn deLorimier, a Boulder City resident who started the online petition and put up the sign at the Flamingo Inn Motel with her partner, said she likens the problem the city faces to gambling, which is not allowed within city limits, but is at nearby casinos, such as Railroad Pass.

Even if the developer goes to nearby Henderson, deLorimier said Boulder City has a chance to send a message that it values its natural resources and the opinions of its residents.

“’I’d ask, ‘if everyone else is jumping off a bridge, would you do it?’” deLorimier said. “Boulder City has never accepted that mantra.”