Hillsboro's Planning Commission meets Wednesday, Sept. 9, to pick up where a marathon hearing left off: deciding how tightly the city should restrict where data centers can be built.
The 6 p.m. session at City Hall is the commission's last scheduled action before the City Council takes up the proposed code amendments Tuesday, Sept. 15, according to the city's data center page. The 120-day moratorium on new data center and battery energy storage applications expires Nov. 24.
What commissioners asked for
The commission closed its Aug. 26 public hearing without a vote after four hours and 36 minutes of testimony and debate, the Hillsboro Herald reported. Seventeen people signed up to testify in person, plus one online. Almost none supported the draft code as written, according to the Herald.
Commissioners unanimously continued the item to Sept. 9 and directed staff to return with four things:
- Tighter limits on the accessory-use allowance, possibly measured against building floor area instead of site acreage
- Draft language for buffers between data centers and schools at 500 feet, 1,000 feet and a quarter mile
- Confirmation that a Type III public hearing process will apply to all three use categories
- Clarification of how the code's energy-storage definition squares with a Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) decision raised at the hearing
Why the accessory-use cap matters
The draft code would let data centers occupy up to 30% of an industrial site's gross acreage as an accessory use. Commissioner Stephen Davis pressed Community Planning Director Dan Diaz at the Aug. 26 hearing, and Diaz confirmed that a worst-case build-out could produce roughly 1,200 to 1,300 acres of accessory-use data center space, according to the Herald.
That figure is more than double the 608-acre cap the Herald reported the rest of the amendment sets for standalone data centers. The zone-specific caps listed by the Hillsboro News-Times add to 525 acres: 215 in the Industrial Park (I-P) zone and 310 in the Industrial Sanctuary (I-S) zone.
Commissioner Anne Thrall-Nash argued the school buffer question can't be separated from the accessory-use percentage, saying the commission can't "meaningfully draw a school buffer until you know how much land the accessory-use provision will actually allow for data storage."
Staff conceded the point on the record.
Little room left under proposed caps
The city currently allows data centers in all industrial zones, the Commercial-General zone and three mixed-use zones. The proposed Phase 1 code would restrict standalone data centers to the I-P and I-S zones. About 203 acres in the I-P zone and 293 in the I-S zone have already been approved for data center development, leaving roughly 12 and 17 additional acres under the proposed caps, according to the News-Times.
Hillsboro has the tightest data center market in the country, with a 0.21% vacancy rate, the Hillsboro Herald reported Sept. 2. The underlying data source for that ranking was not identified in the Herald's report.
The City Council enacted the moratorium July 27. Mayor Beach Pace said at the time that it would give the city "the opportunity to … develop regulations that balance innovation, economic opportunity, and the quality of life our community values."
The council could extend the moratorium for an additional six months if the code work isn't finished by Nov. 24, according to the city's moratorium announcement.
What's next
After Wednesday's commission session, the City Council is scheduled to hold a first reading of the proposed amendments Tuesday, Sept. 15, with a second reading Tuesday, Oct. 6. Both readings accept public comment. Phase 2 standards covering building heights, buffers and green-building requirements are planned for winter and spring 2027.
