Butte County says it has no plans to build a data center, and no proposal has been submitted to the county.
For now, county zoning regulations also don’t allow data centers in unincorporated areas.
But that doesn’t mean one could never be built.
County officials explained what it would take to allow one during a Water Commission meeting Wednesday that drew a packed house to the Board of Supervisors chambers in Oroville.
"If there was any desire to change or include data centers into our ordinance, an applicant would have an opportunity to request an ordinance change.”- Paula Daneluk, Butte County director of development services
Paula Daneluk, director of development services, said a developer could ask the county to change its zoning ordinance to allow data centers.
“If there was any desire to change or include data centers into our ordinance, an applicant would have an opportunity to request an ordinance change,” Daneluk said
Any such amendment would require a public process and approval from the Butte County Board of Supervisors. Daneluk said the process would be “very open and transparent to the public.”
Daneluk emphasized that, at this point, there’s nothing before the county.
“There is no application that has been received in our department,” Daneluck said, “we haven’t had conversations with anybody even asking about this land use in our department.”
Residents point to water and power concerns
Still, the possibility drew significant public interest.
More than 150 residents packed the meeting, and close to 600 comments were submitted electronically, nearly all in opposition.
Commissioner Aimee Raymond, who represents Chico, said she requested the discussion because she wanted the county to consider the issue before a proposal ever arrived.
“My concern is that we would hear about a data center when it was too late to hear about it,” Raymond said.
The meeting comes amid broader pushback in California communities over data centers’ potential environmental impacts.
In Siskiyou County, concerns recently grew after a developer inquired about building a data center near Mount Shasta, sparking weeks of rumors and public backlash. Local officials say there are no plans for one.
Data centers can require enormous amounts of water and electricity to operate. NPR has reported a mid-sized data center can use the same amount of water a day as about 1,000 households.
“Especially in Oroville, over and over again we've been sold out to polluters and environmental hazard.”- Richard Pickard, Oroville resident
Those demands were a major concern for residents who spoke Wednesday. Blake Nicole Ellis pointed to potential stress on the power grid and local water supplies.
“Rolling blackouts in 108 degree weather, wells going dry for small farmers,” she said, “that would be the nail in the coffin for our local economy.”
Richard Pickard, who lives in the unincorporated part of Oroville, said he believes the area’s natural resources have historically been taken for granted and doesn’t want to see that repeated with data centers.
“Especially in Oroville, over and over again we've been sold out to polluters and environmental hazard,” Pickard said.
There are currently no AI data centers in the North State, according to reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle.
