The Sandpoint City Council moved swiftly to close a gap in municipal zoning law at its July 15, 2026 meeting, voting unanimously to begin the process of defining and prohibiting large-scale AI data centers within city limits. The action came after Councilor Pam Duquette discovered that existing industrial zoning rules left the door open to data center development — something she said she had no intention of encouraging.
“I think people got the idea that we might be pushing data centers, and that is the farthest thing from my mind,” Duquette said during the meeting.
How the Issue Reached the Council
Duquette brought the item forward after learning that data centers qualified as a permitted use under the city’s current industrial zoning code. Concerned about the resource demands such facilities carry — particularly high electricity consumption and significant water usage — she consulted with city planner Bill Dean and city attorney Fonda Jovik before presenting the proposal to the full council.
The issue had already generated considerable community discussion. Residents had voiced worries through social media about potential health impacts, developer influence over local decision-making, and the effect large-scale technology infrastructure could have on Sandpoint’s character. That public sentiment appeared to align closely with where the council landed.
Councilor Kyle Schreiber highlighted a procedural reality that gave the measure additional urgency: under current rules, the city is legally obligated to process and consider a developer’s application if it meets the existing code standards. Without a prohibition in place, the council’s hands could be tied if a data center application arrived before a code change was finalized.
Defining the Line Between Small Servers and Large Facilities
While the vote was unanimous, council members acknowledged that drafting the actual code language would require careful precision. Mayor Jeremy Grimm emphasized the importance of distinguishing between small, on-premises server operations — common in many businesses — and the kind of large-scale commercial data center facilities the council wants to prohibit. The mayor estimated the code revision process would take roughly two months to complete.
Councilor Joel Aispuro raised an additional consideration around how the ban is written, pointing to privacy implications tied to decentralized data storage systems. “I think it’d be very important that we’re very precise in that because there is a decentralized aspect to this that’s very important for people’s privacy,” Aispuro said. His concern was that an overly broad prohibition could inadvertently restrict technology configurations that serve legitimate privacy interests for residents and businesses.
Councilor Deb Ruehle voiced support for moving ahead with the code changes, and the measure passed with no dissenting votes.
What Comes Next
The council’s unanimous vote sets the city’s planning staff on a roughly two-month course to draft formal zoning language that defines large-scale AI data centers and explicitly excludes them from allowable uses within Sandpoint. Once drafted, the language will need to go through the standard code amendment process before taking legal effect.
The timeline carries practical significance. As Schreiber noted, until new code language is formally adopted, the city remains bound by its current rules — meaning a developer could theoretically submit a compliant application in the interim. City staff will be working to close that window as efficiently as the process allows.
The data center debate is one of several development-related discussions playing out in Sandpoint as the community navigates growth pressures. Residents and council members have also been weighing in on downtown parking changes and broader questions about development pace, as seen in recent community divisions over the city’s parking plan and the quick reversal of paid parking kiosks following public backlash. Whether the data center ban becomes a template for other proactive zoning restrictions remains to be seen as the council continues to shape how Sandpoint grows.