Amazon uses 45-year-old zoning loophole to dodge Gilroy vote on AI data center
Amazon circumvents Gilroy community vote for AI data center
A massive Amazon data center is under construction in Gilroy, California, despite the community never getting a chance to vote on it. The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon exploited zoning rules from 1980 that classify the site as farmland, allowing the project to bypass a public vote. The company and city had disagreements during the approval process, and residents were locked out of the public comment window.
The Wall Street Journal reports that this specific site avoided scrutiny by adhering to local zoning rules set 45 years ago.
- derektank
This headline seems misleading at best. There was, as far as I can tell reading both this piece and the original reporting in the WSJ[0], no community vote for or against data center construction. What appears to have happened is that Amazon simply followed the existing permitting rules for other industrial construction, “Amazon’s project was approved with a single signature—by the town’s community-development director—because it met zoning criteria set 45 years ago for industrial development along a freeway.”[0] The existing zoning laws did not require a public vote to receive a permit, so I don’t understand in what way a public vote was “circumvented”. It’s certainly fair for residents to ask for more input in general on permitting or zoning, and even to place explicit restriction on data centers going forward, but it seems like what people want is an ex post facto law, which is nigh universally bad law.
[0] https://www.wsj.com/us-news/how-amazon-built-a-data-center-i...
- thenewnewguy
Bias Disclaimer: Amazon pays my salary currently, although my job doesn't have anything to do with datacenter construction.
Maybe I missed it, but the article doesn't seem to say what the "circumvention"/"loophole" that Amazon used was? It seems like Amazon went through the correct city permitting/legal processes years ago, and now residents want to complain about it years later because data centers are this year's culture war hot topic?
Like if Amazon followed the official process here, what's the problem? At some point you have to declare an approval final and allow a company to move forward with construction.
- arjie
Everything here seems fine. Providing everyone with a veto on all things is a surefire way to get nothing. Instead we have a system where we have a set of rules and someone who meets those rules objectively gets to make something. This is way better.
I’m glad they were able to build their datacenter.
- LogicFailsMe
A modest proposal, based on this article:
https://www.fastcompany.com/3026312/what-silicon-valley-woul...
Silicon Valley tech should build mixed use high rise housing and datacenters right on their corporate campuses. All infrastructure to make this a reality is on them to provide. Zuck will be given a special exemption that allows him to build into the parts of that stinky salt marsh already approved for his semiabandoned shantytown.
- essive
Everyone should read "Spaces of Global Capitalism: A Theory of Uneven Geographical Development" by David Harvey. Written 25 years ago, it accurately predicts the data center trend - geography usurped by capatalistic growth.