Last night, Danville City Council voted to allow data centers to be built within city limits. The ordinance city council approved allows data center construction and operation in Danville.

In recent months, staff has received inquiries about locating a data center operation within the City of Danville. At the request of the City Manager, research was completed to gain more insight into the operations of data centers, the land use policies that regulate them, and a review of the City’s Unified Development Code (UDC) and Comprehensive Plan.

After presenting the research, at the request of city council, staff were tasked with drafting amendments to add data centers as a defined use within the city code. 

Some of the amendments include data centers may not be within 500 feet of any property that allows residential use. Also data centers may not operate on less than 150 acres of land, can not be located in Airside, Riverview or Cyber Park industrial parks, and must have a vegetative buffer of at least 20 feet. 

City council also held a first reading for increasing the data center tax rate. The ordinance suggests an increase in the Data Center Tax Rate from $0.25  on every $100 of assessed value to $1.20 on every $100 of assessed value effective July 1. The final adoption is scheduled on May 19.