St. Louis has approved new regulations for data centers, setting limits on where the massive facilities can be built and requirements aimed at reducing their impact on energy, water and surrounding neighborhoods.
The Board of Aldermen unanimously approved Board Bill 49 on Friday, sending it to Mayor Cara Spencer, who has supported the effort to regulate the rapidly growing industry.
But the $3 billion Armory Innovation District — the major data center project that helped ignite the debate — won’t have to follow the new zoning rules.
The planned 120-megawatt data center near the Armory in Midtown was approved under the city’s existing process, allowing it to move forward under separate conditions already imposed by the city.
Those requirements include measures to limit noise and heat, conserve water through a closed-loop cooling system and obtain at least 50% of the facility’s electricity from renewable sources within five years.
Future data centers would face the new rules, which classify the facilities by size, restrict where they can be built and establish standards for renewable energy, noise, lighting and other environmental effects.
The legislation follows months of public hearings and debate over whether the economic benefits promised by data centers outweigh concerns about their enormous demand for electricity and water and their potential effects on nearby neighborhoods.
Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer, who sponsored the bill, told St. Louis Public Radio that the final version was a compromise.
“It does do a lot to protect the city of St. Louis from data centers while still allowing data centers to exist,” Schweitzer said.
But she acknowledged something the zoning rules cannot control: what residents pay for electricity.
“It doesn’t protect ratepayers from the increases in their utility bills that we should expect by data centers and other large energy users proliferating in our society and in our state,” Schweitzer told STLPR.
Until now, St. Louis had no zoning classification specifically for data centers, which generally were treated as offices or warehouses.
The St. Louis NAACP has pushed for safeguards, arguing that Black communities should share in the economic benefits generated by artificial intelligence and data centers without bearing a disproportionate share of environmental and infrastructure costs.
The debate isn’t finished. Separate legislation before the Board of Aldermen would address tax incentives for data centers and the existing tax increment financing district covering the Armory property.