Should Benicia allow data centers? City grapples with zoning

As Benicia prepares for waves of development following the closure of the Valero Refinery, city officials will consider banning large-scale data centers and limiting smaller ones. 

“Right now, if a data center wanted to come into our industrial park, they would be allowed ‘by right,’” City Manager Mario Giuliani told The Benicia Bridge. 

The Benicia Planning Commission will hold a public hearing Thursday and plans to vote that evening on recommended changes to the zoning code to add specific language regulating data centers. The City Council will have final say before any zoning changes are adopted.

Cities across the country – from Coachella to Corpus Christi – are adopting moratoriums or outright bans on large-scale data centers in response to public outcry over centers’ heavy resource use. 

No data center has been proposed in Benicia, city officials said. The move is proactive. 

Benicia’s proposed amendments would prohibit any data center that exceeds design capacity of 20 megawatts. The proposed rules would also state:

• All electric power supply must be through a utility or on-site solar, wind or geothermal energy only. No backup electricity may be provided by internal combustion equipment, like diesel generators. And, must use water-efficient cooling technologies, recirculation or recycled water to reduce water consumption.
• Any project proposed over 50,000 square feet or with a proposed water consumption of over 30 gallons per minute would trigger a public hearing in front of the Planning Commission for approval or rejection. Smaller facilities could be approved or rejected following a public hearing before the Development Services Director.

The current zoning code was written in 1987, without anticipating the rise of AI data centers decades later. 

“This is something that happened in Fairfield,” Giuliani told The Benicia Bridge. “Similarly, they had an older code and a data center went in without any public input, without any opportunity to go to the planning commission or city council.” 

“Kudos to our staff for saying, ‘We want to be proactive. We want to make sure that we have at least an opportunity for review and say,” Giuliani said. 

Benicians have inquired whether a data center could be built at the refinery site or in buffer land owned by Valero. While draft plans proposed by Valero-contracted Signature Development Group do include expanded industrial uses, a representative said in June they are “not contemplating” a data center there, according to reporting by the Vallejo Sun.

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Signature has proposed a mixed-use residential, commercial and industrial development for Valero’s property. Its industrial component “could include advanced manufacturing buildings to support new technology like robotics, light manufacturing, research and development, and other industrial-related uses,” Signature documents say. 

Want to get in the weeds? Read the staff report and draft ordinance below.

Update: This story was updated Oct. 13 to correct the proposed ordinance. The original story incorrectly stated that large-scale data centers would be limited by size, not energy capacity. That was incorrect.