CEDAR CITY, Utah (KUTV) — Discussions have continued for a proposed AI data center located about 18 miles west of Cedar City.
The Iron County Planning Commission said the project — titled the Antelope Data Center — could bring in 670 jobs directly at the facility. They met on Thursday to see if the project complies with county standards and conditions.
Iron County Commissioner Mike Bleak said that while at first he was “skeptical”, he’s “very in favor” of the data center after meeting with the developers and touring their center in West Jordan.
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“They’re clean, they’re efficient, they’re safe,” he said. “We would make sure that as part of that conditional use permit, that the facilities here would meet those same standards. We would not allow anyone to skimp on anything. I’m very in favor because I see the economic benefit and, especially, I see the tax benefit to our consumers.”
Resident opinions are mixed on the center. One student at Southwest Tech said that he appreciates hearing about more local job opportunities. Others are worried about water and energy use.
“There’s always concerns with any kind of center that comes in, right?” Cedar City resident Milton McClelland asked. “Are they managing their own water? Are they disposing of their water properly?”
Commissioner Bleak said he gets calls “every day” from people concerned about water and energy use and employment. At the data center’s public hearing in March, about 350 people attended.
“With technology catching up to where it is now, the water usage isn’t really an issue,” he said. “So, we’re able to look at those projects here in the West because the water isn’t an issue. Technology these days has really caught up to that, where very little to no water is used in the actual cooling. The majority of water used in modern-day data centers is culinary, for restrooms and sinks.”
Estimates determine that water use would be about 13 acre-feet a year, which equates to around eight homes. The center would produce its own electricity from a natural gas power plant and plans to not pull from the grid.
While the data center would bring about 40 to 50 jobs, Bleak says there would be hundreds of contract employees for the technology in the center. The contractors have met with Southwest Tech and Southern Utah University students to get them involved with the project.
“The problem is we don’t have a lot of landing spots for those students that graduate,” Bleak said. “This is going to allow our kids to stay home if they want to, with meaningful, high-paying jobs and raise their families. This is just another link in that chain that we’ve been working really hard for the last several years. I really think that it’s going to have an effect on our intergenerational poverty.”
Bleak said the project would bring valuable tax property to Iron County, which could mean lowering property tax rates by about 55%.
“Property tax rates generally don’t drop,” he said. “This would be really the first of this kind of a project, just because of its massive scale, that would actually affect those rates.”
Approval of the center would be the start of a long process, including meetings with county engineering, building, and planning departments, and complying with federal regulations.
McClelland believes that as long as the center follows permits and regulations, they have the right to build.
“It’s on them to make sure they follow through, and then it’s on the county government to make sure,” he said. “We need to figure out how to grow respectfully and responsibly.”
Bleak said three other data centers have inquired about Iron County, and the county is considering them. They believe that if multiple were approved, they could remove property taxes completely.
Bleak urges people to continue to bring up questions or concerns as they help “progress forward” the project. He met with the developers- Pronghorn Development LLC- this week to encourage them to put together public education programs with the county.
“We need to make sure as we move forward that there’s community education,’ he said. “We will absolutely do that.”
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