The Sparks City Council voted unanimously on Monday, Sept. 22 to consider adding zoning, water, noise, lighting and other building regulations for data centers.
Mayor Ed Lawson requested a vote for a building moratorium be added to the next agenda so the city can put a hold on data centers while staff continues to look into creating an ordinance.
Sparks city planner Sienna Reid told the council that Northern Nevada is emerging as a top location for data centers because of the area's dry climate, low risk of natural disasters, low land costs with high land availability, and state tax incentives.
Reid said the biggest concern she's seen from the public is that the costs of data centers' infrastructure will be a burden on ratepayers.
Under current city code, a new data center would only