OPINION: Data centers will not destroy Reno – Image for illustrative purposes only (Image credits: Unsplash)
Reno – Three data center projects approved in early 2025 occupy less combined land than a single Walmart store in west Reno, yet they triggered calls for a moratorium from city leaders and residents. The city’s planning commission and council navigated approvals amid concerns over growth, even as no new applications have surfaced since. This tension highlights a broader Nevada debate on whether data centers deliver more benefits than burdens for communities strapped for revenue.
Modest Scale of Reno’s Latest Projects
The Keystone Data Center, spanning 3.26 acres near the train trench, gained approval from the Reno City Planning Commission in January 2025. That same month, the city council overrode a commission denial to greenlight the 82,000-square-foot Webb Data Center on a 6-acre site between warehouses. Months later, council members approved the Oppidan 5MW facility on a nearby 7-acre parcel.
These sites total about 16 acres, dwarfed by the 22-acre Walmart at 7th Street and McCarran Boulevard. Construction has proceeded without fresh proposals reaching planners, raising questions about the urgency of last month’s moratorium push, which drew over 150 public commenters.
Regional Growth Outside City Boundaries
While Reno approvals grabbed headlines, Northern Nevada’s data center expansion centers in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center in Storey County. A mapping site lists 28 facilities in Reno, but only five serve the densely populated Truckee Meadows and North Valleys areas. Three of those operated for years: one since 2008 in an industrial park south of the airport, another as a communications hub for over 26 years, and a third in downtown Reno’s Wells Fargo building using decades-old infrastructure…