TULSA, Okla. — The Tulsa City Council is raising its eyebrow at data centers.
“We know so much more about data centers than we did, even a few months ago, even a year ago. It’s a rapidly evolving industry,” Councilor Laura Bellis said.
Bellis wants more caution when approving them; proposing Tulsa take steps to increase protections.
During its Feb. 11 meeting, the council voted unanimously, directing the planning office to reevaluate the zoning regulations with respect to data centers. The plan will potentially upgrade zoning code from Low-Impact Industrial to Industrial Moderate.
BUSY DAY AT CITY HALL >>> The council heard public comments on a potential police monitoring office, and heard updates from TPD regarding the Downtown curfew
In surrounding communities, like Sand springs and Coweta, developers are approaching governments with plans for new data centers. Discussions in Tulsa, so far, have been relatively limited.
As far as large, industrial data centers go, there is only one currently located in Tulsa proper. It’s owned by Hewlett-Packard and is located on the far north side of town, near Owasso. Preliminary plans are in place to add another data center, on the city’s far east side near 11th and the Creek Turnpike.
That one, dubbed Project Anthem, has Nancy Moran concerned.
“Since 2024 when the city approved project anthem, concern and public outcry has grown as surrounding communities have also been approached by hyper-scale data center developers,” Moran said.
In Bellis’ eyes, develoeprs could see Tulsa as ripe for the picking.
“Right now, there are many parts of our city, where a data center can go by Right, and so I wanna make sure that we are driving them to appropriate places, and our city only has so much capacity when it comes to our natural resources,” Bellis said.
The city’s planning office is charged with this re-evaluation work. Bellis said the initial phases of the process could take months.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- 2 News Oklahoma on your schedule | Download on your TV, watch for free. How to watch on your streaming device
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Watch LIVE 24/7 on YouTube
