The City of St. Louis’ planning department would like to limit large-scale data centers to areas zoned for industry—and even then, the developments would be a conditional use with some serious restrictions. And no data center larger than 500,000 square feet would be allowed within the city’s limits.
Those recommendations come from a new 24-page draft framework for data center regulations. City planning executive Miriam Keller says her department has been working on the regulations for the past five months, ever since Mayor Cara Spencer issued an executive order as part of a compromise aimed at avoiding a moratorium on new data center proposals.
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The recommendations will be the focus of a Feb. 11 public hearing. Keller stresses that she sees them as a starting point.
“I think this is a tough discussion everywhere it’s happening,” she says, noting the ire data center proposals have faced across the region and the nation. “I think I don’t know how to have it other than to have it. What we don’t want to do is jam anything through the process.”
In the past, the city has treated data centers like warehouses (there are 12 currently operational within it, albeit all on the smaller side). The draft framework now seeks clear-cut zoning rules that recognizes all the ways data centers are different from warehouses (from sizable energy use to the potential to irritate neighbors by vibration or noise).
“We’re trying to come in with some guardrails to make sure we prevent bad outcomes that a lot of communities have experienced, that we create a structured process so community members know what to expect, and developers know what to expect,” she says.
The framework places data centers in three categories: micro data centers, which “might be directly supportive of and accessory to a research, health care, or office use” and would be 5 megawatts or 10,000 square feet or less; standard data centers of 5 to 75 megawatts, permitted conditionally in mixed-used and industrial districts; and large-load data centers, permitted only in the most intensive industrial districts, what’s currently classified as K in the city’s zoning map.
The K zoning currently runs along the industrial riverfront to the north and south downtown. But there’s also a thick ribbon of K zoning along the I-64 corridor and some industrial areas to the south. The Armory site is zoned K. So is the former Famous-Barr Warehouse just west, which is currently the subject of a 120 megawatt data center proposal. (Because that application is already pending, however, it would not be affected by the new framework, Keller confirms.)
That swath of industrial zoning through the central corridor is one reason the planning department also recommends a buffer for large-scale data centers, requiring them to be 300 feet from anything that’s zoned as or being used as residential, malls, schools, public parks, and houses of worship. There are also minimum distances from transit centers and light rail stations in hopes of preserving those areas for transit-oriented development.
The report notes that data center developers are likely to be most interested in areas zoned K: “In St. Louis, data centers will be drawn to sites along high-voltage transmission lines , which run primarily along railroad rights of way.”
The report adds that the kind of massive footprints being proposed in suburban and rural areas likely won’t be coming to the city. Instead, it concludes, “We may expect to see smaller ‘edge’ data centers that extend the networks of hyperscalers to expand and improve the reliability of data networks. These can be, relatively speaking, more easily integrated into an urban environment.”
And the planners suggest some of the problems associated with data centers may be overstated. While they do use vast amounts of electricity, many newer developments use far less water thanks to innovations that allow for closed-loop cooling systems, and the city’s framework suggests requiring them to do so. Elysia Russell, the city’s sustainability director, says she believes developers will be on board for that: “With any new data center, they’re going to use the best technology to be the most efficient that they can be. So rather than evaporative cooling, they’re probably trending more towards air-cooled or liquid-cooled immersion tactics.”
Data centers also have the potential to bring a lot of money to the city: While they don’t create many permanent jobs, they do generate taxes even after construction. As the document explains, “Because data centers entail extensive capital investment through both construction and equipment purchase/upgrades, real estate and personal property tax revenues are very high relative to other land uses.”
Keller, for one, expects next week’s meeting to draw significant local interest.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a heated and difficult discussion, but I think shying away from that, whether we’re trying to control it or circumvent it, doesn’t do us any favors either,” she says. “I’m looking forward to the discussion.”
