Data Center Interim Zoning
Update 7/10/2026: The county commissioners voted July 9 to establish a moratorium on permitting new or expanded data centers in Missoula County outside city limits. The moratorium is in effect July 9, 2026, through July 8, 2027, or when replaced by new zoning regulations. The moratorium will expire July 8, 2027, regardless of whether there are new regulations by then.
Project overview
Missoula County is considering the adoption of interim zoning to place a temporary pause on the development or expansion of data centers while the County develops updated zoning regulations to mitigate potential impacts to health, safety and natural resources. The proposed interim zoning would apply to both zoned and unzoned areas of Missoula County outside the Missoula city limits.
Data centers are a significant new use with distinct potential adverse impacts. Data centers are capable of consuming enormous amounts of energy and water while producing heat, noise, vibration and other impacts to their surrounding environment. This is particularly salient given the recent development of high-profile, large data center projects across the West.
By initiating interim zoning and taking a pause, Missoula County intends to investigate the circumstances that constitute the emergency, explore the potential options for mitigating the emergency, and determine the course of action that the county commissioners intend to take, if any, to mitigate the emergency. Developing clearer, more robust regulations would provide more clarity for the public, staff and applicants in terms of what the County’s residents would need to see in responsible data center development before the development occurs.
What are data centers?
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality defines a data center as “a physical facility that houses and runs large computer systems. Data centers typically include multiple computer servers, data storage devices and network equipment that can provide information technology infrastructure services for organizations to store, manage, process and transmit large amounts of data. A primary driver of rapidly growing demand for data centers is in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).” Data centers optimized for AI are sometimes called AI factories.
What is interim zoning and how long does it last?
Interim zoning is a tool the county commissioners can use to establish temporary zoning districts and enact temporary zoning regulations. This authority is granted to county commissioners in state law (§76-2-206, MCA). The commissioners may only adopt interim zoning to address an emergency that involves public health, safety, morals or general welfare. The purpose of the interim zoning regulations is to allow the governing body sufficient time to address the emergency.
Before adopting interim zoning, the commissioners are required to hold a public hearing and provide the public with an opportunity to comment on the proposal. If interim zoning is adopted, the County is required to initiate a study within 30 working days to verify that an emergency exists and to determine the course of action the governing body should take to mitigate the emergency. These regulations are enforceable for up to one year, and if necessary, the commissioners may extend the regulations one time for up to one additional year. The regulations would apply to both zoned and unzoned areas of Missoula County outside of city limits.
How is this different than regular zoning?
The primary differences between interim zoning and general county zoning are that interim zoning must be in response to an emergency; it has a less lengthy public notice and engagement period; and it is temporary.
What are the County’s current zoning regulations regarding data centers?
The County currently has zoning regulations that were developed to address the impacts of cryptocurrency mining operations, which were expanded to also apply to data centers pursuant to state law (chapter 5.10). That means that while the County has some important safeguards in place, because they were specifically designed for cryptocurrency mining operations, there are significant remaining gaps in addressing modern and rapidly evolving data center scale and technology. That includes things like the potential for significant water use, large-scale backup generation (typically diesel) to keep facilities online at all times, and other significant considerations.
Have other places done this?
Yes. More than 100 communities in 38 states have placed temporary administrative pauses (also referred to as moratoriums) on data center development in order to develop guidelines and regulations to mitigate their potential impacts. While some states allow outright bans, many of these moratoriums are temporary.
In our region, this includes (among others) four counties in western North Dakota, several Colorado counties, and Iron County, Utah, as well as cities like Spokane, Washington.
Oliver County, ND resolution - 2025
Iron County, UT resolution – 2026
City of Spokane – June 23, 2026
What impacts can data centers have?
Modern data centers can, in a single location, use as much or more electricity than a city (and require onsite backup generation like diesel to support that full load). They can also use the same amount of water as a mid-sized town (depending on their cooling system). The sheer scale of this technology raises meaningful new questions, considerations and the need for mitigation to protect public welfare.
As County staff have learned more about data centers, what other communities are experiencing, and the ways many of those communities are handling data centers in their own zoning regulations, it appears the County’s existing regulations are insufficient to address the potential impacts.
These impacts include, but are not limited to:
Water quantity and quality – The direct water requirements of data centers can be substantial, depending on the size and type of cooling system used. They can also potentially impact water quality through discharge of pollutants and effects on water temperatures.
Energy use – The new class of AI data centers use enormous amounts of energy. A single 37-megawatt (MW) data center would use roughly the same amount of electricity as all households in the city of Missoula. A 74 MW data center would use the same electricity as all current residential, commercial and industrial power users in the city of Missoula.
Noise and vibration – County regulations are largely designed for intermittent fixed sources of noise, and do not consider the impacts of continuous noise, or noise with low frequency or tonal characteristics common to data centers.
Heat/thermal impacts – The heat given off by a data center is equal to the amount of power it consumes. Heat is an important community health impact, and recent studies have found substantial warming downwind from data centers.
Air quality – Because modern data centers need to operate continuously (as opposed to industrial uses, which typically stop for a certain period of the workday and at night), they require backup power to sustain their complete operating load. This most commonly seems to take the form of diesel generators, which emit nitrogen oxides, diesel particulate matter, and other air pollutants. Without meaningful guardrails, this has the potential for localized acute air quality impacts to human health.
Could future zoning efforts ban all data centers in Missoula County?
No. Data centers are, and will ultimately continue to be, an allowable use in certain locations in the County. However, it is important to meaningfully consider these potential impacts and seek to mitigate them as best possible, including through establishing clear, achievable zoning requirements that provide more clarity and predictability for the public, County staff and prospective data center operators.
How would this impact the proposed data center in Bonner?
UPDATE, 7/5/26:
Missoula County received the following message from Mike Heisey, who owns the building the proposed data center would be in:
"After hearing from the public and understanding what the concerns are, I have decided to withdraw my signature from the Krambu special exception application. Bonner Property will not be moving forward with the data center proposed by them. We appreciate the public's feedback and will continue to actively pursue clients for the mill site. Thank you. Mike Heisey"
This development means the project will not move forward. Click here to learn more and follow this project.
Because Bonner Property's withdrawal means that the proposed Krambu facility will not move forward, there are currently no data center proposals that have active application processes with Missoula County. The interim zoning would apply to any proposed data center in the County.
What is a comprehensive plan and how does it relate to the interim zoning?
A comprehensive plan (or growth policy, as it is referred to in state law) outlines policies and projects intended to guide future change in the County across a range of topics. It provides the legal foundation necessary for the development of responsible policy and regulations. One of the most important topics of the new comprehensive plan is land use and development.
The following guiding principles from Missoula County’s 2016 Growth Policy (p. 2-2) provide a compass to be used in deliberation and decision-making:
• Local government should strive to make decisions that are environmentally sound, fiscally responsible and supportive of healthy communities over the long term.
• The right to a clean and healthful environment is fundamentally important. Missoula County’s natural and cultural resources make this place unique; they should be conserved, enhanced and enjoyed.
• Local government decision-making should consider the impacts of and adaptation to climate change in policy and regulatory decisions.
• Economic measures should focus on long-term economic development that is fiscally responsible and does not unduly compromise quality of life or the natural environment.
• Missoula County will strive to protect public health, safety and welfare in a fiscally responsible manner.
The county is in the beginning stages of developing a countywide comprehensive plan for the unincorporated parts of Missoula County. Unincorporated areas of Missoula County include everything outside of city limits (like Bonner, Lolo, Frenchtown, etc.) Click here to learn more and follow that project.
Public comment
Let us know what you think by logging in or creating an account and submitting your comment below. Follow this project on the right-hand side of this page to be emailed when there are updates.
Who's Listening
-
Climate Action Program Manager
Missoula County Planning, Development and Sustainability
Phone (406) 258-3442 -
Phone 406-258-4946 -
Phone 406-258-3425
I am asking you to please vote yes on pausing data centers. Ideally there would be complete ban on them in the future. We have seen time and again that these facilities do nothing but harm the surrounding communities while further lining the pockets of out of touch millionaires and billionaires. Please listen to the community, we do not want this. Thank you.
Dear Planners,
Please vote to pause all data center zoning in Missoula County.
As a former resident and now a yearly visitor to Missoula county, I come to this area because of the natural values that this place affords. With their water and energy use, data centers negatively impact the very qualities that I and tens of thousands of other visitors who come to fish and hunt the area seek to enjoy. They will deplete a crucial part of what makes Missoula such a unique place.
Thank you.
I think it is important to consider what makes living in Missoula County special - and the improvements over the last 30 years that have made this possible. One of those improvements is the 15-years long superfund clean up on the Clark Fork River - mitigating a century’s worth of very toxic pollution - which we can all see in those giant berms along I-90 near the Smelter Stack. It would be an act of insanity to repeat anything with even a 1% chance of harming this reclaimed area in Bonner, MT. I am glad that proposal has been withdrawn.
There remain other places in the county that are as of yet essentially unmitigated - the paper mill site being one of them. It seems to me that the county should focus on getting things really cleaned up, then deeply take stock as to the causes of past problems, and make a comprehensive plan that does not include repeating past mistakes.
Concerning Data Centers in particular, they do have a very real potential of repeating some of the industrial mistakes of the past. Imagine 20 years from now when quantum computing has probably been developed and these centers essentially have become dinosaurs filled with the detritus of a former technology. If we can’t prevent a paper mill or a mining operation from trashing parts of Missoula County do we think we can prevent the old contents of a data center from doing the same - with its inherent heavy metals and toxic coolants? Anyone who has followed the 5 proposals by Krambu (all deemed insufficient) can’t miss the obfuscations that were in play. How do you get it wrong 5 times? That’s just the proposal - what about construction inspections, if it were to have been ok’d - what would end up being hidden, missed or forgotten about? There was no good faith visible on the part of those proposal makers - that much is apparent.
There really is no provable long term benefit to local residents when it comes to data centers. No, they do not bring a wealth of stable jobs over the long term. No, they do not add positive & healthful environmental benefits to the locations in which they are placed. They do not make our schools better & the noise & light pollution does ruin the livable environment. No, they do not keep energy prices low for the community’s residence (Missoula County is already stressed continually in this regard). No, they do not prevent eminent domain actions on the part of the energy company, of private citizens property (more often they require it for their infrastructure). No (of course), the financial benefit does not trickle back into the community (it DOES go somewhere else).
The special quality of life in Missoula County is not derived from places like Data Centers. It comes from our beautiful mountains, rivers, small businesses, that wonderful University of Montana, our thriving arts scene, and everyday folks being able to do something nice for their neighbors. Data Centers by their very definition will, in both big and small ways, only be an impediment to that quality. I recommend that the moratorium be put in place for these reasons as well as others unstated.
Thank you so much for reading my comment!
Please vote yes on pausing any development of data centers in the county.
Let's not allow our beautiful county to be compromised by data centers. The pollution, noise, heat and other detrimental factors are not acceptable. Our health, safety and quality of life are treasures that are irreplaceable. A permanent moratorium is desirable. Thank you.
“… an emergency that involves public health, safety, morals or general welfare”. This certainly is that. Data centers anywhere are an affront to all of earth’s communities. It is particularly obscene to put them in communities which have managed to maintain some balance with nature. I understand we don’t as yet have laws that prohibit them. I also understand that there is a real possibility these things will be built and then sit idle. Insult on insult. Placing a temporary pause is to exercise a minimum of prudence given the likely grave consequences of chasing after these bubbles.
Dear County Planners,
Missoula is asking you to be the poster child for how to do a data center the right way—by listening to the community and recognizing that we Do Not Want a data center in Missoula County or the surrounding area.
What we want is clean water, clean air, affordable energy prices, and environmentally forward thinking from our leadership.
I do not want my energy bills to rise to benefit an out of state corporation that will bring minimal (if any) jobs to this community. More than that, I do not want to sacrifice the health of our local ecosystems (and especially our rivers). We’ve already seen a gross lack of transparency from these companies with the Krambu proposal. These companies don’t care about the citizens of the towns where they put their energy sucking, noise polluting, water wasting monstrosities. But our political leaders ARE supposed to care. Please hear us. Please adopt the interim zoning to pause the development and expansion of data centers in Missoula county.
Please pause all data center zoning in Missoula county. I am now out of state but as a previous Missoula resident and now frequent visitor, it would be devastating on multiple levels to move forward on any data center projects. They are horrible for the environment and local communities. This is not what Missoula County needs. Prioritize clean water and clean air for all residents and wildlife. Thank you.
I am writing to express my strong support of interim zoning to pause the development or expansion of data centers in Missoula County. Data centers will have a variety of negative impacts on Missoula's environment, wildlife, and community members—including high water and energy usage, noise, and air pollution. There are no apparent benefits of data centers to Missoulians: data centers will not generate jobs or wealth for the local community, just money for distant billionaires. Please pause (or, better yet, ban) data center development in Missoula County for the sake of the land, its people, and its wildlife.
I have no interest or support for any data scenters or crypto outfits in Missoula county.
Missoula County should not be burdening county residence with any monetary cost or overusing are water or polluting are air that's it.
Thank You
G Lazarowski
This is a turning point for Missoula. It is our responsibility to act on behalf of this land during our brief time stewarding it, and it is our responsibility to act in the best interest of this community. Being forced to rush these decisions in order to be on the bleeding edge is the opposite of responsible. Whatever it is you care about, whether it's the fish in the rivers, the rivers themselves, the communities that call Missoula home, the health of you and your family, the affordability of daily life, the access to clean drinking water, the local economy, the unhoused, or anything else, none of it is served by being forced to bend over backwards to accommodate data centers just because they are "inevitable."
Demand transparency.
Demand accountability.
Demand clarity.
Don't settle for anything less.
The 5 valleys and all of Montana continue to be in drought, continue to be plagued by fires, I haven't seen Lake Como at full in years. I choose Como because it's a reservoir. And when it stays low it's a fantastic indication that there is less water to go around than previously. Some of my best memories are of floating the Blackfoot into the Clark Fork. I imagine those memories would be the last if data centers were allowed to take more of our water. And they give nothing back to the community! We cannot let our small towns fall prey to corporations who do not care about us. I support the moratorium on data centers.
Dear Missoula County Commissioners,
I strongly support a data center moratorium in Missoula County.
It is great news that the proposed Bonner data center project fell through due to community opposition, and a data center moratorium would provide temporary protection for Missoula County from another similar project. Missoula County still has a (relatively) pristine environment, to which data centers pose a large threat, and on a national level the AI technology reliant upon these data centers is used to advance authoritarianism, mass surveillance, and war. If it were on the table, I would also support a permanent ban for AI data centers within Missoula County.
Thank you
Do the data center zoning ASAP, and while you're at it include and publish the specific criteria all future proposed center applications must meet to be considered. The Bonner Center application process transparency left much to be desired and no one could find any of the applications on the county website even though full-time county employees were processing it.
I am in favor of interim zoning for data centers throughout Missoula County, but I believe that our state Constitution's provision for "a clean and healthful environment in Montana for present and future generations" actually calls for no data centers to be present anywhere in our state. The Constitution clearly dictates that the state and every person must maintain "a clean and healthful environment." There shouldn't even be a question as to whether data centers should be permitted based on this provision. Nevertheless, here we are wasting important time and resources weighing the pros and cons when we need only to look at other communities with data centers to see the irreparable harm being done to water availability, water quality, and habitats. Please place this pause/moratorium as an initial step, but know that there is a very large contingent of concerned and informed citizens who are against data centers not only in Missoula County but throughout the country. The wave of public outcry is only getting stronger as awareness increases. Let's put Missoula on the right side of history and have us join other communities that are leading the way to outright banning data centers. Thank you for your consideration and efforts.
I strongly support the proposed interim zoning. Modern data centers generate massive amounts of heat and can use hundreds of thousands to several million gallons of water per day to mitigate heat. Even facilities that rely on air-cooled chillers, direct-to-chip liquid cooling with closed loops, or immersion cooling will still require enormous amounts of electricity from water-intensive power plants. Thank you.
Dear Missoula County Commissioners,
I want to express my strong support for the interim zoning pause. I am extremely concerned about the negative impact that data centers have on the surrounding community and environment, including extremely high levels of energy and water usage as well as noise pollution, heat pollution and air pollution. I do not believe we should be compromising our resources and community here in Montana in order to further enrich wealthy executives.
Please vote in favor of the interim zoning pause, and please take a serious and critical look at any future proposal for data centers in Missoula County.
Thank you.
Eliot Graham
Please adopt interim zoning for data centers. Large hyperscale data centers generate enormous amounts of heat which require massive cooling, either through water cooled systems -- which can use hundreds of thousands to several million gallons of water per day -- or through air-cooled chillers, direct-to-chip liquid cooling with closed loops, or immersion cooling, all of which
To Mr. Heisey:
Thank you so much for withdrawing your signature from the Krambu special exception application! SO grateful for this! Thank you again!!
Commissioners and Planning Staff:
I appreciate your leadership on this issue. I strongly support the proposed interim zoning, although I am unsure whether one year will be enough to figure out all the needs around data centers. There is also strong support for a permanent ban within the community, and I would support that if there is a legal basis for the County to do so. While I understand that there is interest within County government in creating a model for how data centers should be regulated, I am not sure this is a good use of our time and resources. We have so many other priorities to attend to, as you well know.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely, Neva Hassanein