Two more data centers to be reviewed by Reno Planning Commission on January 15

Updates, previews, and the latest development news for the week of January 13, 2025

Jan 13, 2025

I know that the fires in the Los Angeles area have been on many minds this week, not just due to abundant local connections with those affected but also due to our community’s own history with wildfires.

If the news is making you anxious, I highly recommend checking out the State of Nevada’s Fire Prevention webpage, where you can find resources and links related to fire safety, preparedness guides, a Homeowners Wildfire Awareness Checklist (with tips related to the built environment and defensible space), and much more.

Here’s a helpful excerpt:

Let’s do everything we can to help keep our homes and neighborhoods safe.

Update: the January 8, 2025 Reno City Council Meeting

The City of Reno has posted its own highlights from the last Council meeting at January 8, 2025 Reno City Council Meeting Highlights.

NOTE: Item C. 1 – the request to abandon Stevenson Street – was continued (without discussion) to the February 12 Reno City Council meeting.

This is Reno covered that abandonment request and several rezoning items that were discussed in City Council takes on zoning items at first meeting of 2025 (Kelsey Penrose, This is Reno, 1/9/25).

City of Reno meetings for the week of January 13, 2025

You can find links to agendas and materials for the week’s four public meetings here.

NOTE: The January Ward 1 NAB meeting previously scheduled for today (Monday, January 13) was CANCELLED.

Here’s what’s on tap this week:

Senior Citizen Advisory Committee – Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2:00pm
Urban Forestry Commission – Wednesday, Jan. 15, 5:30pm
Reno Planning Commission – Wednesday, Jan. 15, 6:00pm. HTML agenda here.
Ward 4 Neighborhood Advisory Board – Thursday, Jan. 16, 6:00pm

Let’s take a bit of a closer look at the Planning Commission agenda.

More Data Centers coming to the Planning Commission this Wednesday, January 15

You can read the full Planning Commission agenda here. It includes consideration of two more data centers, a subject that received more media attention this past week:

OPINION: Data centers will not destroy the world (David Colborne, The Nevada Independent, 1/7/25)
Effort to block Reno data center offers glimpse of increasingly thorny issue in Nevada (April Corbin Girnus, This is Reno, 1/10/25)

A brief discussion of data centers and the idea of introducing potential new regulations pertaining to them ensued at the January 8 City Council meeting prior to the approval of the Zoning Code Clean-Up (Item F.1). You can watch that discussion starting here, beginning with a request by Ward 2 Councilmember Naomi Duerr for staff to explain the recent changes to regulating data centers.

Development Services Assistant Director Angela Fuss then (and in more detail, later) outlined some of the current regulations for data centers, indicating that they have been added as a new use with their own definition distinguishing them from warehouses and requiring a conditional use permit. Councilmember Duerr suggested that the City should “go further” by adopting special standards for them “similar to other uses that have unique impacts” and asked what that process would be.

Fuss responded that the City could initiate a text amendment governing data centers at a separate meeting, and Councilmember Duerr suggested some of the stipulations she thought the City could consider. She also brought up the idea of issuing a possible moratorium on any new data centers until those regulations could be put into place.

Ward 4 Councilmember Meghan Ebert, the Council’s liaison to the Reno Planning Commission, indicated that the Planning Commission was looking to Council to “give them more guidance on how these [data centers] should be conditioned” and agreed with Councilmember Duerr on the need to conduct a “deeper dive” into the requirements for them, especially to offset power usage. She also voiced her support for considering a moratorium on data centers while the details are hammered out, in order to ensure that data centers comport with the City’s Master Plan.

Mayor Schieve then expressed her interest in revisiting the idea that conditional use permits run with a property even if the owner of a property sells the parcel to someone else (this was in relation to any use, not just data centers). As she said, “You could have a business that’s doing great operations and then all of a sudden once they sell the project, then they’re not doing such great operations and business practice, so that’s something that always concerns me when we talk about CUP. So maybe that’s something that we could look at.”

Back to data centers in particular, Councilmember Duerr commented that the Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA) staff has recently begun to ask its board (which she chairs) to weigh in on the appropriateness of high intensity water uses.

City Manager Jackie Bryant indicated that the idea of implementing a moratorium on data centers would need to be brought back on another agenda but she understood the Council direction for staff to initiate a text amendment specifically related to data centers and would be “bringing back something” at a future date (that process involves public and NAB input, stakeholder and agency outreach, Planning Commission and City Council action, etc). More detailed discussion of the current regulations governing data centers followed, so if you’re interested, I encourage you to watch the entire item, following the links above.

Here are the two proposed data centers on the January 15, 2025 Reno Planning Commission agenda, including one in the downtown area:

Item 6.3 - Case No. LDC25-00022 (Oppidan 5MW Data Center)

A request has been made for a conditional use permit to allow: 1) development of a data center, and 2) business operations between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. The ±7.02 acre site is located on the north side of North Virginia Street ±2,470 feet east of its intersection with Stead Boulevard. The site is zoned Industrial Commercial (IC) and has a Master Plan land use designation of Industrial (I). [Ward 4]

You can find the Staff Report for item 6.3 (Oppidan 5MW Data Center) here and consult the agenda for links to maps, studies, a preliminary site, elevations, and landscape plans, agency and public comments.

Item 6.4 - Case No. LDC25-00026 (Keystone Data Center)

A request has been made for a conditional use permit to allow: 1) development of a data center; and 2) business operations between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. The ±3.26 acre site is located on the west side of Keystone Avenue ±335 feet north of its intersection with West Second Street. The site is zoned General Commercial (GC) and Industrial (I) and has Master Plan land use designations of Suburban Mixed-Use (SMU) and Mixed- Employment (ME). [Ward 1]

You can find the Staff Report for item 6.4 (Keystone Data Center) here and consult the agenda for links to maps, studies, a preliminary site plan, elevations, a residential proximity exhibit, landscape plans, agency and public comments.

The Planning Commission agenda also includes two more public hearings, so be sure to consult the full agenda for items of interest to you. If you’d like to comment on any of these items, you can attend the meeting in person or virtually via this link, submit an online public comment form at www.reno.gov/PCPublicComment or send an email to RenoPlanningCommission@reno.gov.

Brief Digest: The Latest News in Local Urban Development

Here are some of the latest published articles related to local development:

Reno-Tahoe International Airport files permits for ground transportation center (Jason Hidalgo, Reno Gazette-Journal, 1/7/25)
Reno City Center Update - What's Next? (Mike Van Houten, Downtown Makeover, 1/8/25)
Public art in Reno proposed to increase with more murals, river projects (This is Reno, 1/8/25)
Apartment landlords sued by DOJ over 'rent pricing scheme’ have Reno ties (Jason Hidalgo, Reno Gazette-Journal, 1/9/25)
With outside firms reluctant to shoulder wildfire risks, NV Energy wants to insure itself (Amy Alonzo, Nevada Independent, 1/12/25)
Downtown Reno's Cafe Capello to close for good on Friday (Ariel Smith, Reno Gazette-Journal, 1/13/25)
Reno among worst in the nation for its share of young adults buying homes (Jason Hidalgo, Reno Gazette-Journal, 1/13/25)
HOA regulation in Nevada ineffectual, captured by industry, critics complain (Dana Gentry, Nevada Current, 1/13/25)

Don’t forget, it’s the Year of the People! One possible place to start: applying for a position on one of the City’s many Boards and Commissions. You can find more info and a link to the general application here. Have a great week, everyone.

Be sure to check out my Citizen Guide for helpful resources and links for anyone hoping to become more informed and engaged in issues related to urban development (& more) in Reno.

You can view this and prior newsletters on my Substack site, subscribe to receive each new edition in your email inbox, and follow the Brief (and contribute to the ongoing conversation) on X, Facebook & Instagram. If you feel inspired to contribute, you may purchase a paid subscription through Substack or contribute via Venmo at @Dr-Alicia-Barber or via check to Alicia Barber at P.O. Box 11955, Reno, NV 89510.

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