A coalition of farmers, a school board member, and a sitting Hillsboro City Councilor are suing the city.

All three allege the city improperly approved property tax breaks for 17 data centers worth an estimated $84 million in 2026 alone.

1000 Friends of Oregon and local plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on June 22 in Washington County Circuit Court. The writ of review proceeding names Mayor Beach Pace and the Hillsboro City Council as respondents and challenges approvals made under the Oregon Enterprise Zone Act.

The plaintiffs say the city and Washington County rushed to approve the 17 Enterprise Zone applications before a state moratorium on new data center tax incentives took effect in June.

The majority of those deals would extend property tax breaks beyond 2032, with some stretching to 2051.

Named plaintiffs include Jacob Roloff, a farmer in unincorporated Washington County; Dr. Tammy Carpenter, a school board member; Hillsboro City Councilor Kipperlyn Sinclair; and Aaron Nichols, owner of Stoneboat Farm north of Hillsboro.

Attorneys Jesse Buss of Willamette Law Group, Eve Goldman of 1000 Friends of Oregon, and Eric Wriston of Crag Law Center represent the petitioners.

Roloff said the rolling Enterprise Zone agreements concern him because he has no vote over Hillsboro's elected officials, yet their decisions affect county services and the schools his son will attend.

"I've farmed north of Hillsboro and east of North Plains for a dozen years now," Nichols said in a statement. "I've watched as good farmland is paved over for many shortsighted uses.

But in the last five years I've seen the pace of the loss change to an all out sprint to accommodate the 'needs' of data centers."

Nichols added that his children attend one of the oldest schools in Oregon, where parents fundraise every year for supplies and field trips, and that no data center has ever donated to the school.

Councilor Sinclair, who previously called for a moratorium on new data center development, said the Enterprise Zone program is "subverting its goal of alleviating economic hardship" by linking affluent industrial areas with lower-income neighborhoods to justify the tax breaks.

Hillsboro has 21 data centers completed or under construction across roughly 470 acres, Axios Portland reported in June.

The lawsuit follows weeks of contentious City Council meetings on the topic, including a special work session on June 9 and a special meeting on June 23.

A separate estimate by Dirk Knudsen, editor of the Hillsboro Herald, puts total annual data center tax abatements citywide even higher, at $117.3 million to $124.9 million. That figure has not been independently audited.

The case will proceed through Washington County Circuit Court. Residents can track the litigation through 1000 Friends of Oregon at friends.org.