New proposals in central Alberta have left host municipalities between a rock and a hard place.
Alberta’s plan to attract $100 billion in data centre development appears to be working, as more developers eye the province as a place to set up shop. That surge in interest has also left some municipalities grappling with how to balance development with public concern.
Alberta currently has 22 data centres in operation, with dozens more proposed or in some phase of development. This week, a handful more were added to that list.
We recognize this application has prompted important discussions about transparency, public input, and how projects are considered.
Grande Prairie County
Some four-and-a-half hours northwest of Edmonton near Sexsmith, Alta., Grand Prairie County has issued a development permit for an AI data centre, signing off on a proposal for five 80-foot by 180-foot buildings and 15 eight- by 20-foot make-up air generators—HVAC devices that pull fresh air indoors—filed by an undisclosed applicant.
In Edmonton, Walton Global Investments, a private real estate and land asset management company from Calgary, has submitted applications to the City of Edmonton requesting changes to its planning documents that would make it easier to build data centres in the city. That comes as the company, which counts offices in Hong Kong, Arizona, and Taiwan, plans to build a hyperscale-ready data centre campus at the Edmonton Energy and Technology Park.
Further south, a $300-million, five-megawatt AI research lab and data centre has been proposed by Canadian company Wave Infra alongside a tract of land near the Highway 2 corridor between Calgary and Edmonton.
90 percent of capacity destined for Alberta
Canada’s data centre boom is being most acutely felt in Alberta, where regulations favour development and where an astounding 90 percent of the country’s currently planned data centre capacity is destined, according to research from Toronto’s York University. At the same time, public discourse around data centres has soured, leaving potential host municipalities in the difficult position of balancing public opinion with an influx of data prospectors.
In Grande Prairie County, the data centre was approved based on the County’s existing land-use requirements, which have included data centres for years. However, public outcry followed the permitting process, with residents questioning why they weren’t given more information.
“The County recognizes the significant public interest in this project and understands that residents want more information about the approval and what it means,” a statement issued by the County reads.
“The permit was approved in accordance with the existing land-use bylaw, adopted in 2003. While the requirements of the bylaw process were met, we recognize that this application has prompted important discussions about transparency, public input and how projects of this type are considered under the current process.”
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Grand Prairie County has since amended the process it uses for future data centre applications, citing the fact that modern data centres may fit with the letter of the bylaw, but not its spirit given their scale. Data centre applications in the County now need to come before the municipal planning commission regardless of whether they meet bylaw standards.
Data prospectors pushing for change
Similar conversations are happening in Edmonton and Red Deer County. In Edmonton, the City is seeking feedback until Oct. 25 on Walton Global’s proposed changes to the City’s Edmonton Energy and Technology Park (EETP) Area Structure Plan. Submitted by Stantec Consulting on behalf of Walton Global, the changes would amend text in the EETP’s area structure plan to include data centres and associated power generation facilities in the park’s medium industrial category. It would also redesignate 253 hectares of land from petrochemical to medium industrial, and limit the plan’s eco-industrial principles—which are intended to mitigate the environmental impact of the industrial area—to the petrochemical category only.
The EETP resides within the Alberta Industrial Heartland zone and was envisioned as a “world-class eco-industrial park that combines economic opportunity, ecological integrity, and efficient use of land and resources.”
The City said that while AI data centres were not contemplated during the plan’s creation in 2010, AI data centres are considered heavy industrial use, and so would be permitted within the existing petrochemical precinct already.
Edmonton is set to debate its wider policies around data centre development on Tuesday, discussing whether to regulate or restrict large-scale projects within the city’s limits.
Similar conversations are happening in Red Deer, with the County looking for public input and planning to hold a public hearing. The County’s permitting of this data centre comes nearly a year after it approved another, in Blindman Industrial Park, last year.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Feature image courtesy of Microsoft.