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A Portland City Council committee advanced a resolution Tuesday that asks city officials to negotiate with data centers in broad daylight.
An item introduced by progressive councilors urges city administrator Raymond C. Lee III to not enter into nondisclosure agreements with data center builders and to “engage in transparent public processes related to data centers.”
“Transparency is a core value of the City of Portland, and the community must be informed about the potential for future data center development in Portland, and given the opportunity to provide meaningful input,” reads the resolution introduced by Councilors Angelita Morillo, Tiffany Koyama Lane and Mitch Green.
Koyama Lane submitted an amendment stating “that City Council intends to pursue moratorium or zoning restriction on all hyperscale data centers at the earliest time and to consider additional approaches for large-load data centers.”
The resolution passed the Housing and Permitting Committee 4-0 and the item was added to the Sept. 9 regular meeting agenda.
This year, vast public backlash against data centers has descended on state and local governments across the country. In Oregon, two-thirds of voters polled by DHM support moratoriums. The Hillsboro City Council unanimously approved a 120-day moratorium after giving millions in tax breaks over the past two decades. Salem and the counties of Washington and Clackamas are now considering moratoriums, as well.
Data centers are permitted for construction in many parts of Portland. But though they’ve been floated as a possible balm for downtown’s lingering vacancy problem, the city has yet to see new data center projects proposals.
NDAs aren’t used in every data center development but, with the explosive pace of data center development, they are becoming more common, environmental activist Nick Caleb of Breach Collective tells WW.
“I think there’s just generally some anxiety in watching what’s happening out in Hillsboro without any safeguards, and I think people want to get ahead of that,” says Caleb, who was one of a dozen people to testify Tuesday in support of the NDA resolution.
Opponents of data centers cite a range of arguments including groundwater contamination, rising energy costs and a poor return on investment from tax breaks and other subsidies.
The Oregonian has reported data centers cover approximately 3,000 acres across the state with projects accounting for an additional 9,000 acres now in the development pipeline.
Last month, six Democratic legislators proposed a statewide three-year moratorium on large-scale data centers. The bill would be introduced in 2027.
