(The Center Square) – New Orleans planning staff is recommending a citywide ban on large and hyperscale data centers while allowing smaller facilities under new zoning restrictions.
A preliminary City Planning Commission report proposes creating separate classifications for accessory, small, medium and large data centers. Facilities larger than 100,000 square feet and consuming more than 20 megawatts of electricity would be prohibited throughout the city.
“Data Centers can be high energy-use facilities that can ultimately overwhelm existing energy providers,” planning staff wrote, adding that larger facilities can also put pressure on municipal water supplies.
Small data centers would be capped at 20,000 square feet and 5 megawatts, while medium facilities could reach 100,000 square feet and 20 megawatts.
Those facilities could be conditionally allowed in certain commercial, industrial and downtown districts, but would face additional requirements. Applications would have to be reviewed by Entergy New Orleans, the Sewerage and Water Board and the City Council Utility Regulatory Office to determine whether existing utility systems can support them.
“Data centers are unlike many types of land uses regulated by the zoning ordinance,” staff wrote, because their impacts can be most intensely experienced through “the availability and cost of energy and water.”
The proposed regulations grew largely out of controversy over a potential data center in New Orleans East. Planning officials found that the city’s existing zoning ordinance did not specifically define or regulate data centers.