PONDERAY — Following in the wake of other cities in the region, the Ponderay City Council discussed the possibility of adopting an ordinance to ban data centers in the city at its Aug. 3 council meeting. 

The discussion was prompted by Councilor Rick Larkin after he noticed that the Sandpoint City Council unanimously approved a motion to define and bring forward an appropriate code to prohibit larger scale AI data centers in Sandpoint last month. 

"It's becoming a major issue throughout the United States," said Larkin, adding that after collecting data, he found that the one of the most significant problems concerning data centers are extreme power demands. 

"They use as much electricity as thousands of homes, which puts a lot on all of us because it's going to cause brown outs and all kinds of things," said Larkin. 

Larkin refuted claims that data centers produce more job opportunities. 

"No, it doesn't," said Larkin. "They're limited permanent jobs. A small permanent staff of 20 to 50 people maximum." 

Other problems Larkin said he found include high water consumption, noise and light pollution, an increase in power costs, and concerns of systems being hacked by other countries. 

With access to water being an ongoing issue in the city, Larkin said the water being used to cool down a data center would be harmful. 

"I would like to see us move to ban any coming into the city of Ponderay," said Larkin. 

While Councilor Brenda Thompson agreed, Council President Phil McNearney did not.  

McNearney claimed that regulations for data centers have been enforced, with mandates for data centers to provide more power than they are using. 

Addressing the water consumptions concerns, McNearney said data centers are supposed to be recirculating the water. 

"I just don't like bans, anyway," said McNearney. 

Ponderay Planning Director KayLeigh Miller said that given the state of the city's water system, the process of installing a data center would be "self-limiting." 

"There's no way they would approve something that has a large water consumption in our area at this time," said Miller. 

Speaking to the city's existing ordinance, Miller said if a data center were to be built, it would likely operate similar to how a warehouse or wholesale facility in the city does. 

Although those buildings are permitted in the commercial zone, Miller said that unless the council sought an extension and expansion of utilities, "there are not many parcels left in the commercial zone that are of adequate size to accommodate for something like that." 

McNearney echoed Miller's statement, saying that he didn't know if the city had any sites sufficient for a data center to begin with. 

"We might have to change our ordinance as far as how we would regulate something like that," said McNearney. "It's not something we've dealt with before." 

Larkin said community members have taken to social media to address their concerns about why Avista is increasing the size of its center, with some speculating the expansion is to build a data center. 

"People are wondering, and it makes you wonder, why did they decide all of a sudden, when these data centers are popping up everywhere?" said Larkin. 

Miller proposed making an amendment to Ponderay City Code that would exclude data centers from the zoning code's use areas. 

The council is expected to continue the discussion at a future date.