The Morrow County Board of Commissioners has opted to push back a decision on a proposed 274-acre Percheron Data Center to be located 11 miles southwest of Boardman after receiving new testimony from the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development as well as the 1,000 Friends of Oregon organization.

BOARDMAN — The Morrow County Board of Commissioners has pushed back a decision on a proposed 274-acre Percheron Data Center 11 miles southwest of Boardman after receiving new testimony from the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development and the 1,000 Friends of Oregon organization.

Commissioner Dave Sykes said after receiving the additional testimonies, “the developers want time to respond to that, so we carried over to the first Wednesday of September (Sept. 6). That will be the only testimony we take, and then we’ll deliberate and see about making a decision that day.”

Testimony from the DLCD challenged the project’s siting and the request to rezone its 274 acres from agricultural to industrial.

“In a nutshell, the DLCD letter explicitly stated they support economic development but asked the applicant to provide a more in-depth analysis to explain why existing sites with suitable zoning were not suitable for the data center,” Morrow County Planning Director Tamra Mabbott said.

“At the July 25, 2023, Morrow County Planning Commission public hearing, Jon Jinings, our Community Services specialist, provided testimony on DLCD’s behalf reiterating that statewide goal exceptions are ‘exceptional’, decisions to approve goal exceptions should be made when there is no other option,” read the DLCD letter, which was signed by Dawn Marie Hert, the commission’s Eastern Oregon regional representative. “We do not believe that is the case with this application request.”

The document called out the Oregon Statewide Goals, which involved agricultural lands, urbanization and public facilities and services.

Mabbott said that although it was uncommon for the state to openly oppose a proposed project, “a 247-acre rezone is not really common, either.”

“Nobody’s disputing that a data center is a more intensive use of the property, not even the state and the state didn’t object to that part of the record at all,” she continued, adding that the state is compelled to uphold its goals and make sure applicants have done their due diligence.

DLCD’s letter included a list of seven alternative Percheron Data Center siting options. Center developer Rowan Green Data, LLC is expected to address them by the Sept. 6 Morrow County Board of Commissioners meeting. The ball is now in Rowan’s court to prove why its chosen site is the most suitable.

The San Francisco-based Rowan builds data centers for high-profile clients such as Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft with sustainability in mind, often seeking sites that can leverage nearby renewable energy resources such as wind and solar.

An end user for the data center has yet to be confirmed.

“We knew we wanted to locate in Morrow County because of the strong workforce here and the record of technology investment in the region,” Rowan Chief Commercial Officer Bobby Hollis said. “We feel confident that we found a Morrow County site that makes sense for a data center and will work with all of the interested parties to help them understand why the site is ideal for this development.”

According to Mabbott, Rowan considered some of the sites on DLCD’s list when it announced its plans to the Morrow County Planning Commission two years ago, and the firm has been diligent in its site selection process.

“(Rowan) give(s) their reasons, which is in their application, but they wanted to find a location that wasn’t in the original corridor of all the data centers we do have,” she said.

“The site is in close proximity to existing infrastructure, primarily transmission lines,” she continued. “One of the attributes of that particular location is they will build a transmission line in an existing transmission line right of way and that has been an issue in a lot of other locations for data centers where the data center is built and then it requires new transmission line corridors.”

Regarding farmland conservation goals, the Morrow County Soil and Conservation District previously concluded that the soil at the site is “not farmable.” Threemile Canyon Farms said that the land has not been farmed in the seven decades for which it has records.

“We looked at many different options before determining this was the best option for data center development,” Hollis said. “Many different considerations factor into a data center site, especially access to infrastructure resources, like water, energy and network connectivity. This site was the best for these options and since the site was never suitable or used for agriculture, it created a great option for us to provide an economic development opportunity for land that was previously unused.”

Though Rowan has the opportunity to defend its site choice, according to Mabbott, “If the state (doesn’t) agree with their analysis, the state or another party could appeal it and say they didn’t complete the analysis and then that application could be denied and then Rowan would pursue or look for another property at that point.”

She remains confident that Rowan will be successful.

1000 Friends of Oregon concerns

New testimony from 1000 Friends of Oregon primarily concerns the planning commission’s handling of the application, as well as water provisions for the project.

1000 Friends is a nonprofit organization founded by Henry Richmond and Gov. Tom McCall in 1974 following the latter’s signing of Senate Bill 100, which created Oregon’s land use planning system.

Mabbott said Rowan will be procuring water to service the site from the Port of Morrow.

“The provision of water is a critical, existential component to this project and the board should not approve it until the applicant has proven that it can procure the water needed from the port,” wrote Devin Kesner, associate staff attorney for 1000 Friends, in its letter to the board.

Mabbott said the port provided an earlier letter expressing its ability to supply the water to support Percheron’s needs.

“It’s within their water right to extend the water out there for industrial use. The planning commission found that water line can only be used for the data center and not hooked up along the way for other uses, so it will be an expensive water line,” she said. “I think the planning commission had good reason to recommend approval.”

In the letter, Kesner also cited a reference in Rowan’s application to trucking in water until the port completes construction of water-delivery infrastructure. He pointed out that there was no timeline for this component of the project and questioned how trucking water to the site would affect other aspects of the project, such as traffic impacts.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to continue the conversation about how to best utilize this unproductive piece of land,” Hollis said. “Through our conversations with local organizations and stakeholders so far, we are confident that a new data center will be a positive asset for Boardman and beyond, and we hope the Morrow County Board of Commissioners will agree.”

If Rowan’s approved for its chosen site, the company will complete its purchase of the site from Threemile Canyon Farms, and construction could begin within a few months afterward.

Hollis said the first buildings will likely be finished about a year after breaking ground, with hiring to follow and servers to be installed after that.

Percheron will join six data centers planning to operate in Morrow County, Mabbott said, one of which is located within Boardman’s city limits. Another center campus is under construction along Bombing Range Road. Three more are slated for just south of the Boardman airport, not including Percheron. One has completed a pre-application review.

For information about the Percheron project, visit percherondatacenter.com.