The consensus from the Council was that the city needed to complete its economic master plan prior to making a long-term land-use decision. The measure failed in a unanimous 7-0 vote.

“We’re going to see what the city wants to be when it grows up, and then we’ll be able to make a decision regarding this parcel, and it might be a data center, it might not, depending on what we get back,” Councilman Travis Hoban said.

The official proposal came from property owners B+F Timpanogos Tech Center LLC, which requested to build a 66,000-square-foot data center that would utilize a closed-loop water system and buy electricity from Provo City Power.

The Provo Planning Commission recommended approval of the rezoning to the Council, but Mayor Marsha Judkins opposed it, sharing a letter with the planning commission that said approving the project would be premature while the city works on its economic development plan.

The Council’s decision came following a public comment period, during which several people spoke out against building a data center and a presentation was given by Steve Styler, who represents the applicant.

Styler said the property was bought in 2017, and that the developer has worked with the city for approximately a year on the project. He said B+F Timpanogos Tech would purchase and use silver water, which cannot be released back into a water system, in its closed-loop system.

“Our intention is that we would never discharge any of that water anywhere within the city system,” Styler said.

He spoke on the financial windfall the city, county and school district would receive from property taxes on the facility and argued it would become an anchor tenant for the area that would promote other businesses. Styler also said the data center would not be a big draw on the city’s power system because 6 to 10 megawatts of power have already been allocated to the property by the city power company.

“Provo Power spoke in support of this at the planning commission because the power is there and not being utilized, and we think that we could utilize it and create a good revenue stream for the city,” Styler said.

Speaking out against the proposal was Angie Carter, chair of Provo’s East District, who asked the Council to postpone the decision, citing the uncompleted economic plan. She said it was not a good location near two hotels and a school.

Another Provo resident, Aaron, credited the developer’s plan to recycle the water but said in his experience with data centers that doesn’t happen. He added that there isn’t a lot of income generated from a data center after it’s already been built.

“I would implore you to go slow on this,” he said. “I’ve seen what happens and I don’t like what happens.”

When it returned to the Council for discussion, Councilman Jeff Whitlock questioned the claim that the center would not affect city power rates and said “it’s hard to find precedent” of a closed-loop water system working on this scale of a data center. Councilwoman Katrice Mackay added that a data center’s goal is to grow in the future, and that would result in more energy creation and greater emissions in the city.

The Council did not want to make a permanent decision by allowing the facility to be built at this time. 

Said Councilman Craig Christensen: “I think we should move slow, and I think we should be very deliberate and very careful, because … this is not something that you undo.”