After 3 hours of community backlash, Oregon data center fight is still in limbo

By the end of a three-hour Hillsboro City Council meeting marked by extended debate and testimony, officials still had not said how they would handle the contentious issue of data center expansion in the Oregon community.

As the Hillsboro News-Times reported, long-frustrated residents left the marathon session still unsure of how city leaders plan to proceed.

What happened?

The June 2 meeting's first hour was spent on council discussion of data centers before shifting into about two hours of heated public testimony, per the News-Times. 

The outlet reported that around 40 residents asked the city to halt additional development, citing worries about land and farmland, water use, energy costs, pollution, and the limited number of permanent jobs.

During the meeting, Hillsboro economic and community development director Dan Dias said the Hillsboro area had 16 data centers, or about 13% of Oregon's 123 statewide sites in 2025. He said five more are either under construction or still moving through the local permitting process.

Speakers said the issue was not limited to the facilities themselves. Many described a loss of faith in city leadership, arguing that major development decisions are not being handled with enough transparency or accountability.

"I want to be proud of my city, but how can I do this when I feel that my city isn't looking out for me?" resident Mike McTernan asked the council, per the News-Times.

Why does it matter?

In Hillsboro, residents said the tradeoffs tied to data centers are becoming harder to accept, especially if large industrial projects consume land, water, and electricity without providing enough lasting local benefits in return.

Data centers are closely tied to the growth of artificial intelligence. While AI does have its benefits, such as boosting crop production and improving weather forecasting, it still has plenty of drawbacks.

The infrastructure behind those tools can require enormous amounts of electricity and water, potentially straining local resources, increasing pressure on utilities, and raising concerns about security, misuse, and unintended social consequences.

That concern shaped much of the testimony, as the News-Times captured. 

"Data centers monopolize our natural resources, they do cause noise, water and air pollution, they do raise temperatures, they take up room for new tax-paying companies to come to our city," resident Nicole Cook asserted, per the outlet.

What's being done?

State policy is one of the biggest forces affecting Hillsboro's next decision. In March, the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 4084, pausing new data center tax breaks in urban and suburban enterprise zones for one year.

City officials said developers responded with a burst of filings featuring 17 applications across eight entities, per the News-Times. Residents said the surge reinforced fears that companies are trying to lock in approvals before those incentives expire.

Hillsboro leaders have also been considering a possible local moratorium on new data centers, but the June 2 meeting ended without a final direction, the News-Times noted. The paper added that the council is scheduled to continue the discussion on June 9.

Some, like McTernan, implored the council to clean up its act and listen to its constituents.

"Act like the elected leaders you are and look toward how you can honor the people rather than sneak and bulldoze your policies despite them," he said, according to the News-Times.

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