Hillsboro: Data Center Code Starts Nov. 19; City Says Moratorium Extension Expected Nov. 17
- Hillsboro's new limits on data centers and battery storage sites take effect Thursday, Nov.
- That date is new to the release.
- The agenda for that meeting was not yet public as of Nov.
Hillsboro’s new limits on data centers and battery storage sites take effect Thursday, Nov. 19, according to an Oct. 30 city news release. The moratorium on new applications is set to expire Nov. 24, and the release now says the City Council is expected to consider extending it for six months on Nov. 17.
That date is new to the release. When Focus Hillsboro read it Oct. 31, the same sentence ended with “at an upcoming meeting.” By Nov. 4 it read “on November 17,” while the page still showed an Oct. 30 post date and carried no note about the change.
Where the Nov. 17 meeting stands
The agenda for that meeting was not yet public as of Nov. 4. The city’s CivicWeb page for the Nov. 17 council meeting listed no documents that afternoon, and the site’s list of upcoming meetings showed no special council session before then. The Nov. 3 council agenda had no moratorium item.
Six months is “the maximum time allowed by the state,” the release says, and an extension comes with a condition. The Oct. 20 staff report says the council “must demonstrate that reasonable progress is being made” on the problem that led to the pause. When councilors adopted the moratorium on July 27, staff said evidence of progress would support any extension, according to the meeting minutes.
The calendar from July to the deadline
Those steps close a schedule that began last summer. The table pulls each date from city records, with status as of Nov. 4.
| Date | Step | Status and source |
|---|---|---|
| July 27 | Council adopts a 120-day moratorium on data center and battery storage applications, 6-0, at a special meeting | Done; July 27 minutes |
| Oct. 6 | Ordinance 6521 gets first approval | Done; ordinance text |
| Oct. 20 | Council adopts Ordinance 6521 unanimously | Done; ordinance and release |
| Oct. 30 | City release posted; extension set for “an upcoming meeting” | Wording as read Oct. 31 |
| Nov. 3 | Regular council meeting | Agenda listed no moratorium item |
| Nov. 17 | Council meeting; release says extension expected | Agenda not posted as of Nov. 4 |
| Nov. 19 | New code takes effect | Set; city release |
| Nov. 24 | Moratorium set to expire | Set; city release |
| Early 2027 | Phase II code work begins | Planned; city release |
| Oct. 31, 2027 | School buffer repealed unless the council extends or re-enacts it | Set; ordinance Section 3 |
The Nov. 19 start comes from the ordinance itself, which takes effect 30 days after passage and the mayor’s approval. The adopted ordinance lists both as Oct. 20.
What applicants face starting Nov. 19
The release calls this code Phase I of a two-part rewrite, with Phase II on design and site standards. Its first change is location. Data centers were allowed in 12 zones, including commercial zones and business parks, the release says, and the new code limits them to two industrial zones with acreage caps.
The Industrial Park zone is capped at 215 acres, with 203.17 already in data center use. The Industrial Sanctuary zone is capped at 310 acres outside the Jackson East area, with 292.29 in use. That leaves 29.54 acres between them, by our calculation (215 minus 203.17, plus 310 minus 292.29); the release says “fewer than 30.”
We laid out those zone figures when the council adopted the caps on Oct. 20. Battery and other energy storage sites, allowed in eight zones before, will be limited to industrial zones as a main use and capped at 12 acres per site, according to the release.
The approval process changes too. Data center and energy storage applications become Type III cases, which means a public hearing before the Planning and Zoning Hearings Board. Before, most were Type II decisions that city staff could approve, the release says, and the ordinance sends appeals of data center decisions to the City Council.
Buffers, on-site servers and an open question
The code also covers data centers that support another business on the same site. Those must serve the site’s own operations and cannot lease space to outside customers. The ordinance caps them at 25% of the site’s acreage or 30% of its floor area, whichever is less.
A data center also cannot sit within 1,000 feet of a public or private school serving children under 18. That includes schools outside city limits whose buffer reaches into Hillsboro. The ordinance repeals the buffer on Oct. 31, 2027, and the code sets no buffer for energy storage.
One question the documents leave open is timing. The release and ordinance do not say how the city would handle applications filed after Nov. 24 if no extension is adopted by then.
Residents who want to weigh in can find the meeting basics on CivicWeb. Its council page says regular sessions start at 7 p.m. and work sessions at 6 p.m. in the Civic Center Auditorium, 150 E. Main St., with Zoom access, and lists the City Manager’s Office at 503-681-6269. On the Nov. 3 agenda, public comment was limited to three minutes, and remote speakers had to register by 3 p.m. that day.
Top image: Illustrative image, 2015: a data center building with rooftop cooling equipment in The Dalles, Oregon (not a Hillsboro site). Photo: Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
