The committee met on July 9, 2026, with six members present, to consider Board Bill 49, which would establish zoning regulations for data centers in St. Louis. After extensive public testimony and deliberation on four amendments, the committee voted 6-0 to advance the bill with a due pass recommendation to the full Board of Aldermen. The meeting included a brief recess due to a tornado drill.
Good morning. We're gonna call today's housing, urban development and zoning committee meeting to order. Madam Clerk, please call the row. Alderman Cone. Alderman's Weitzer. President. Vice Chair Sonier. Alderman Browning. Alderman Aldridge. Present. Claire. Chair Clark Hubbard. Here. We have four present. All right, for present. We have a quorum. We're gonna move the agenda around and do the approval of minutes at the end. So Alderman Ms. Weisser, you are recognized on Board of Board Bill 49 as the mandate in committee. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman and members of the committee. I appreciate again the time everyone is spending on this bill and data center regulations in general. Unlike the Alderwoman from the 7th, who always puts together a great presentation. It's not generally my style to do a PowerPoint, but I did want to make sure that everyone in the room would be able to see the words that I'm saying as well, so there's less confusion afterwards, if any. So next slide, please. There have been some information out there about the difference things this bill does and does not do. So I wanted to create a slide here that has some of those things really expounded upon. There have been some folks who are saying that this bill bans data centers. That is not true. There is no ban of data centers in this bill. Uh data centers from you know any number of megawatts, uh, even from you know, at zero to five in the micro category, uh, five to up to 30 in the standard category, and then 30 and above in the major category, all have different places in the city that they would be conditionally allowed. Um what this bill does do is it strives to regulate data centers as a land use. So the more impactful that land use is, the more requirements that that data center has. So standard and major data centers use more energy uh than the majority of industrial uses in the city uh to date, which is why there are more requirements on those on those than in the micro level, uh, and as well as fewer places that those can go. Um it is also true that each data center application would be evaluated on its own merits, which some projects would be approved and some would not. Uh the application requirements and the renewable energy requirements are all things that each project would have to demonstrate that it can meet, as well as all the reporting requirements and and different um things that are how the data center would be built, how the noise would be dealt with, all of those things will be specific to each project, and each project would be evaluated separately. So, yes, that would likely mean that some projects would be approved and some would not be approved. Um that would be um because these are all conditional and they all go through the Board of Public Service. Uh that is um just the process that has been outlined. Uh just like uh any other conditional process that happens in the city, there are some projects that you know uh are are permitted conditionally and some that are not, and it would be the same type of project. Um I know in my experience there have been different times markets have been that are conditionally allowed in certain areas have been approved or not approved, depending on the various conditions of of that specific land use, which is what this bill tries to get at to see whether the project is something that would be a benefit to the city of St. Uh it is also true in the bill that current data centers are able to continue operation. Uh there are certain requirements that are triggered, uh certain requirements of of these regulations that are triggered by structural alterations and expansions, those are outlined in the bill. Uh, we've worked really closely with current data center operators to make sure that everyone understands uh understands the requirements that would be triggered and agrees that they're possible to um implement uh at the uh at the time of this alteration or expansion. Uh we do have um an amendment that clarifies a few things even further uh at the request of some of the data center operators. Uh there it is true that this bill does cap this the physical size of data center, 500,000 square feet. That is currently the only quote unquote cap that exists in the bill. In the planning commission, there was an attempted amendment uh that I I proposed with the with the support of Alderman Sonier and Christina Ramendia to prohibit uh of the president's office to prohibit major data centers of 30 megawatts and above. But that amendment failed. Um, the reason that I I offered that amendment was because of my concern of uh the you know large expansion of the type of land that we currently see with data centers, which in the city of St. Louis, with the exception of one that is being built, are all under 10 megawatts.