CEDAR CITY, Utah — The Iron County Planning Commission spent much of Friday hearing concerns about a 650-acre AI data center planned for a location just outside Cedar City.
Resident James Munn was there for his wife and two kids.
"I moved here for two things," Munn said. "My wife came here for school. And I have two daughters, so I came here for clean air.
About 110 people showed up as the commission deliberates whether to approve Pronghorn Development's plan to build the AI data center on their land in a desolate area 14 miles west of downtown.
The commission claims to have received about 37 pages of comments from the public in the last two weeks. Those opposed to the center have expressed concerns about the drain on air quality, dark sky damage, electricity usage, and water in drought-hit southwest Utah.
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The meeting was for informational purposes and for the planners to ask questions, rather than hear comments. But the one audience interruption came from Munn.
"Who are you holding accountable?" he asked.
The developer says it will use 16 acre-feet of Water per year initially, then 3.1 acre-feet annually. Commissioners said that's roughly half what a local elementary school uses in a year.
FOX 13 News checked those numbers, and according to the Utah Division of Water Resources, a typical elementary school in Iron County uses 2.7 to 15.3 acre feet of water per year.
Those on the planning commission pointed out that to reject a proposal entirely, they would have to prove the developer would vastly overuse resources. But they can attach conditions — such as water usage limits — before forwarding the proposal to the full county commission.
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They also have the burden of trying to replace the 600 jobs being lost after Genpack announced its closure last week.
"We’re trying our best to just do our due diligence and listen and respect private property rights, but also be stewards for the people," explained Iron County Planning Commission member Dennis Gray.
Pronghorn representative Scott Cuthbertson told FOX 13 News that won’t be a problem. He said the data center will not be connected to the main grid for electricity, generating 1.5 gigwatts from its own natural gas plant. After an initial fill-up of water, it will mostly be reusing it.
"There's a lot of misinformation around today's data centers," Cuthbertson claimed. "I think that a lot of the reaction is from how data centers were constructed and developed years ago, especially on the water."
There’s been an ongoing mystery about which AI giant is planning to operate the facility. Cuthbertson said it’s actually a “build it and they will come” situation, and compared it to a city that builds a major sports facility but doesn’t yet have a major league tenant.
"There's not an operator yet," he said, "we don't know who the operator is going to be."
As for Munn, he said what he heard was encouraging.
"If centers could figure a way to more efficiently use water, which they're proposing with this project, then I think they would win people over if they just prove that," he said. "I think they heard the community."
