Furor arose in the community earlier this year when a re-zoning request appeared before the Commission for the development of a data center in New Orleans East. Though that project never materialized, residents were rightfully alarmed, as hyperscale data centers have harmed communities around the country by driving up energy costs, decreasing grid reliability, increasing air and noise pollution, and depleting water resources.
At that time, the City Council ordered a temporary, one-year prohibition on the zoning of new data centers and ordered the Commission to create definitions for data centers for the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance. The Alliance met with Commission staff early on in the process to express our concerns, and drafted the position paper at their request. Their recommendations to the Commission were submitted on July 21 and include a citywide prohibition on large or hyperscale data centers, which they define as those larger than 100,000 square feet and consuming greater than 20 MW of electricity.
The Alliance created the following guidelines for regulation of data centers in New Orleans and Louisiana more broadly:
Additionally, we raised the following considerations specifically for the City Planning Commission:
The City Planning Commission is set to take up consideration of these recommendations at its next regular meeting on Tuesday, July 28 at 1:30pm in Council chambers. The Alliance encourages those who can to be there in person to voice your concerns to the Commission as it makes this important decision on the future of data centers in New Orleans.
