A Data Center Comes to Salem (Maybe)

Tell me an interesting fact,” the cashier at the grocery said to me. “I’m asking everyone who comes by.” I’m more used to “how many bags do you need?” This one took me a minute. “Salem has an 18% tree canopy, which is pretty low,” I offered. “There will be a lot fewer trees if that data center goes through” she replied.

Ah, the data center. Data centers are not popular, and for good reason. They consume electricity and water at the scale of a small city, drive up utility rates, emit pollution and, for some critics, offer little in return. New York just instituted a one-year moratorium on the construction of new large data centers. And as many as 14 states are debating similar legislation.

The first I learned of the data center proposal was last Tuesday night, when about 20 union members in hi-res safety vests showed up at the Salem Planning Commission. The meeting format allows public comments on non-agenda items at the end of the meeting. They patiently waited through a presentation of safe streets, which was the evening’s main agenda item, and about eight of them testified in support of a Salem data center.

Early on, I had to ask the Commission’s administrator, Lisa Anderson-Ogilvie, for anything she knew about the data center. Lisa informed us that the Salem Reporter had published a story shortly before our meeting that disclosed confidential discussions between Verrus, a data center developer/operator, and the City of Salem. (The City is permitted to engage in confidential discussions in the early stages of a potential development opportunity.) Apparently, Marion County had published information on the proposal and Verrus then released the City from its non-disclosure agreement.

The speakers represented several building trade unions: carpenters, pipefitters, and electricians. The spoke eloquently about the importance of local jobs and particularly the opportunity to train apprentices on what could be a state-of-the-art data center.

The stakes are real for the construction trades. Verrus estimates it will invest $5.1 billion to build the 75-acre campus. It will employ approximately 75 people full time and generate about $10.5 million annually in city taxes. The unions were at the Planning Commission that night to get ahead of the narrative and turn the story into one about jobs and instead of data centers' rampant consumption and neighborhood degradation.

One speaker made a very good point. He said that we are not asking for special consideration for the data center but simply that we do not hold them to a higher standard than we would any other business. That’s an easy commitment. The Salem Reporter quoted me as saying:

“We don’t bring in our own judgment on these matters or our own personal biases, whether it’s for or against data centers or any other business,” Slater said. “What we look at is what are the regulatory requirements for approval, and if they meet those regulatory requirements, we approve them.” 

“Our land use laws are really set up that if you meet the criteria, you get to build here. That’s how it’s set up. It’s very different from some other states that are having these data center conversations,” Slater continued. 

I have voted for several projects that I did not particularly like because the proposals met the statutory criteria for approval. (Oregon planning commissions are subject to review by a special land use court and the federal courts.) If there is a proposal I do not like, the best I can do is ask hard questions to test whether the applicant can, in fact, demonstrate whether they met the approval criteria.

The data center application may not go before the Planning Commission. The proposed site is an industrial park that allows data center as a permitted use. Unless there is a significant amount of discretion needed to permit the facility, the city’s Planning Administrator, Lisa Anderson-Ogilvie, will make the determination if the application meets the required criteria. If an eligible party objects to approval by the Planning Adminstrator, the appeal may go the Planning Commission or a hearings officer.

Whether we hear the application or not, Verrus is not leaving anything up to chance. They published a website that same night describing the project, named Oakline at Mill Creek, and took pains to differentiate their data center from what they describe as “legacy” data centers.

Oakline at Mill Creek will have a closed loop cooling system that “result is significantly lower water consumption for the campus: much less than an average 18-hole golf course, or about as much as just a few sit-down restaurants.” (I have to say, this was not as reassuring as Verrus might have hoped because golf courses are profligate water users.) The website also notes that the data center will use battery backup systems, rather than diesel generators, which contributes to grid stability and reduces pollution. In a nod to a recent controversy over Costco’s removal of a grove of our iconic Oregon white oaks for their Salem store, Verrus pledged to preserve the oaks on the site.

The proposed site is an important part of the discussion. Verrus is planning to build in Mill Creek Corporate Center. This industrial park is a city-state project that created shovel-ready industrial sites. It is separated from residential areas and most of the infrastructure is in place. Development essentially pays back sunk infrastructure costs. Current businesses include Amazon, Fedex, and Home Depot. And, as noted earlier, a data center is a permitted use.

One other interesting point. The work to convert farmland into the Mill Creek Corporate Center included the construction of a 42-acre wetland. Overall, Mill Creek Corporate Center includes 550 acres of developable land and 100 acres of open land, including the wetlands. This is an excellent ratio of developed-to-open land. I am not sure if the proposed data center will be all that Verrus promises it to be, but I do know Salem will benefit from further development in Mill Creek Corporate Center.

My one question: will there be solar panels on any of those 75 acres? If so, that would go a long way to mitigating concerns that the data center will gobble up electricity and pair well with the data center’s promised battery backup system. The city failed to seize the solar panel opportunity that comes with large scale commercial buildings when they set the rules for Mill Creek Corporate Center.