Wednesday, July 15, 2026 | 8:08 p.m.
Boulder City plans to reason the Bureau of Land Management’s connection for an 80-acre information halfway connected federally-owned onshore wrong metropolis limits, the metropolis assembly voted Tuesday.
The metropolis plans to record the announcement of entreaty earlier July 27, officials said connected Wednesday.
“We were not reached retired to by the BLM to beryllium included successful the decision,” City Attorney Brittany Walker said connected Tuesday night. “This is simply a departure from erstwhile precedent and procedure, arsenic the BLM fundamentally sweepingly approved a caller onshore usage without pursuing processes successful national law, which see a meaningful engagement process with the City of Boulder City arsenic good arsenic an capable accidental for nationalist remark connected the projected change.”
Dozens of residents filled Boulder City Hall connected Tuesday evening, describing a consciousness of betrayal implicit the BLM’s “a astonishment attack” – a sentiment assembly members agreed with.
Councilmember Steve Walton believed the determination was “absolutely retired of line” and “ridiculous,” adding that “I don’t cognize successful immoderate satellite however they could person made the connection that that task is successful immoderate mode akin to the archetypal star vigor accumulation and artillery vigor retention application.”
City officials besides said that national onshore would inactive person section utilities and exigency effect services, but the BLM didn’t consult with the metropolis oregon supply “adequate opportunity” for nationalist remark connected the information halfway arsenic required by national law.
The contention traces backmost to a antecedently approved right-of-way application that had greenlit a star workplace for Skylar Capital Management. An amendment to that licence aboriginal switched the onshore usage to a information center.
BLM officials determined that the star farm’s 2023 biology reappraisal nether the National Environmental Policy Act was capable to besides screen the information center.
Walker said Boulder City would’ve had a amended accidental for input had the BLM engaged successful the processes required nether national law.
Councilmember Denise Ashurst expressed disbelief successful the Trump administration’s decision, calling this a bipartisan contented that was “out of the norm” and requesting that Walker support the metropolis assembly and nationalist updated.
Hundreds of Boulder City residents person waged a monthslong effort successful absorption of the information center, holding protests, sticking hand-painted gait signs astir the metropolis and filling nationalist remark sections astatine assorted metropolis meetings. A Change.org petition opposing the task gathered much than 6,000 signatures.
Concerns from assemblage members ranged from accrued h2o depletion successful an already adust godforsaken to vigor use, vigor and sound emissions and the project’s wide acceptable wrong Boulder City’s character. The assemblage has a agelong past of rejecting commercialized sprawl; it remains 1 of lone 2 Nevada communities — Panaca is the different — to prohibit gambling.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority antecedently banned evaporative cooling, meaning caller information centers aren’t allowed to usage water-intensive methods to chill their servers. Facility powerfulness request could summation due to the fact that of that.
NV Energy, Nevada’s largest utility, has said it needs to summation vigor accumulation by 3 times the magnitude needed to powerfulness Las Vegas to accommodate projected information centers statewide, and has acknowledged it volition beryllium incapable to scope those goals without fossil fuels.
Resident pushback culminated successful a 6-1 ballot astatine the Boulder City Planning Commission successful May to cull the information halfway exertion and urge that the metropolis assembly not o.k. adding information centers to the Land Management Process list, citing the request for much regulatory oversight.
Townsite Solar 2, the genitor institution of Skylar Capital Management, archetypal applied successful January to make a information halfway connected 88.5 acres of city-owned onshore it holds an enactment to lease. The institution had primitively held that enactment for star powerfulness procreation and artillery vigor storage; the enactment expires Dec. 31.
The metropolis required the developer to restart the Land Management Process — the city’s modular archetypal measurement for evaluating imaginable leases of city-owned onshore — due to the fact that converting the parcel to a information halfway would necessitate a caller lease agreement.
On July 8, City Manager Ned Thomas said the city’s process served its intended purpose, contempt Townsite Solar 2’s alteration successful plans.
“Since February, the City has followed the City’s LMP to facilitate an unfastened and transparent treatment with residents astir the anticipation of leasing City onshore for a information center,” Thomas said successful the release. “The Council treatment connected July 14 volition reason the existent process.”
Initial estimates placed the yearly lease worth of the information halfway tract adjacent $1.47 million, with full caller yearly gross to the metropolis — including spot taxes, licence fees and administrative charges — projected astatine astir $2.3 million, according to the city’s release. Those funds would person helped offset costs for police, fire, exigency response, utilities and different metropolis services.
With the BLM’s decision, Boulder City volition present suffer retired connected the $2.3 cardinal successful yearly gross portion residents stay astatine hazard of the impacts brought by the information center, according to officials.
Boulder City is not unsocial successful grappling with information halfway proposals.
The Reno City Council voted 6-1 successful June to widen a moratorium connected caller information halfway approvals done August 2027 — a archetypal successful Nevada — pursuing akin assemblage pushback.
Similar efforts besides are connected the array successful Nye County and Henderson, who volition determine connected whether to enact a moratorium connected caller information halfway operation astatine their gathering connected July 21.
Boulder City Mayor Joe Hardy mentioned that metropolis voters volition besides get to determine successful November whether information centers volition go an accepted usage of city-owned onshore successful the Eldorado Valley, stressing it arsenic a infinitesimal for residents to marque their opinions connected information centers known.
The conflict successful Boulder City has besides gained the attraction of authorities leaders similar U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., who penned a missive to Steven Pearce, manager of the BLM, and Justin Abernathy, acting manager of the Nevada State Office of the BLM, connected July 8.
In her letter, Titus asked for “robust nationalist consultation and transparency” during the permitting process for information centers, pointing to biology concerns from Boulder City residents and others crossed Southern Nevada lasting against much information centers.
“Residents of Boulder City and different communities successful Southern Nevada person a close to cognize astir immoderate connection to transportation national onshore to information halfway developers,” Titus said. “Data centers perchance tin impact our scant h2o resources, vigor usage and the wide environment. The BLM allowed a backstage developer to power from processing a star workplace connected city-owned onshore successful Boulder City to processing a information halfway connected adjacent national onshore without immoderate nationalist review. This is unacceptable.”
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