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
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Climate Action Program Manager
Missoula County Planning, Development and Sustainability
Phone (406) 258-3442 -
Phone 406-258-4946 -
Phone 406-258-3425
Missoula County is becoming to crowded to consider projects that have know hazards to people. You should use every tool you have to avoid allowing data centers. These centers should be in an area with little or no people and unlimited soar power (the desert Southwest).
As a taxpaying Montana native, I strongly support the interim zoning and will also add (like many others have) that the Bonner Mill should also be rejected on the grounds it violates our state constitutional rights. By setting this precedent with interim zoning laws, we can ensure companies trying to follow in the footsteps of Krambu to destroy our beautiful state and natural resources, won't be able to.
Krambu also needs to be included because of multiple reasons others have posted below, but to reiterate what groundswell wrote, "If the county believes an emergency exists that justifies pausing new data center development countywide in order to protect water, air quality, and public health, that same emergency exists at the Bonner Mill site. The Blackfoot River, the residential neighborhood, the elementary school approximately 200 yards away, and the KettleHouse Amphitheater and Brewing are not protected simply because an incomplete application happened to be filed first."
ADOPT INTERIM ZONING AND INCLUDE KRAMBU'S BONNER MILL SINCE IT VIOLATES OUR CONSTITUION AMONGST NUMEROUS OTHER CONCERNS.
In a state already in a wildfire and impending fresh water crisis and one that depends so heavily upon wildlife and nature for tourism, it would be (at a minimum) a poor business decision to allow any business (AI Data Center or otherwise) to potentially ruin our natural resources/sources of continual profit and benefit to Missoula County in general.
This land is sacred (and stolen), the people here are special, and there’s no amount of tax revenue that’s worth polluting this beautiful place.
Hello:
My name is Charlie McPherson; I am a resident of Missoula County, a taxpayer, an educator, and an organizer. I would like to state full-throated support the interim zoning and would like to ask that it be specifically extended to Bonner Mill.
My reasoning for this extension of interim zoning for Bonner Mill is as follow:
1. More than 100 communities in 38 states have enacted similar moratoria;
2. Krambu's five applications to date have been riddled with 29 unresolved deficiencies and contradictory figures for projected water use for this data center, including an unaddressed risk of Legionnaire's disease; they have shown themselves not be a trustworthy broker, and;
3. a single 37 MW data center uses roughly the same electricity as all households in Missoula combined, a significant draw on our power supply and an all-but certain source of environmental damage and rate increases.
For the interest of the safety of the community, the safety of our rivers, and the health of our community and the generations to come, I believe the interim zoning proposed should extend to Bonner Mill in order to prevent these and other damages to our land by Krambu. I further propose the public comment period be extended to 23 July 2026 in order to give the community ample time to make their voices heard.
Thank you,
Charlie McPherson
I support Missoula County adopting interim zoning. The Bonner proposal should be included.
Our own Montana state constitutional rights stand in direct opposition to data centers.
Article II, Section 3 guarantees a clean and healthy environment as an inalienable right.
Article XI, Section 1 declares that “the state and each person shall maintain and improve” the environment.”
Article IX, Section 3 states “waters within the boundaries of the state are the property of the state for the use of its people.”
This right protects our access to public rivers and streams in Montana.
In short, it safeguards Montana’s air, water, public lands, and our access to public lands and waters for generations to come.
Translation: stop these data centers or you’re violating our constitutional rights. (Info source: Montana conservation voters).
Yes, please adopt interim zoning that will pause data centers development and expansion. The data center proposed in Bonner should not be allowed to proceed.
Missoula County should NEVER consider Missoula a home to data centers. Forget a temporary ban, make it a permanent ban. We don’t want these energy sucking data centers ruining our beautiful landscape.
As a Montanan and as someone who grew up here enjoying the beautiful and abundant nature here, I am vehemently opposed and disgusted by even the questioning of whether there should be and a wanting of a data center like this in Montana. This would have horrific impacts on natural resources that are irreplaceable and that we should protect for current and future generations of flora, fauna, and people. Living in Montana is already expensive and this would also hurt the locals like me that work hard to help the public but still struggle with expensive electricity and other bills. Please think about the horrific ripple effects that this would lead to. There are so many problems that come with data centers like this, that we can just avoid altogether by not having it here. Please don’t do this for the sake of nature and the lives that this would impact above all else. You folks making this decision must listen to the words of the people that you were elected to represent and I will say that to vote in favor of this data center being in Bonner would be deeply wrong and irresponsible. Please. Do. Not. Do. This.
I applaud you for 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. I support your efforts and am following this issue closely regarding the Bonner mill site.
I strongly support the pause on data center development. Data centers tax the energy grid, waste water during drought, bring up people's power bills, and cause noise and light pollution. AI is being used as a justification for mass unemployment and is using fossil fuel energy in a time of acute climate crisis. I support this pause and I think it should absolutely apply to the Bonner Data center.
I very much support the interim zoning but I think the only "clearer, more robust regulations" Missoula County should develop are no AI Data Centers in Missoula County anywhere. And a big, fat NO to the AI Data Center in Bonner! For all of the reasons people have so eloquently listed already on this page and also on the public comment page for the proposed AI Data Center in Bonner.
I agree with an interim zoning proposal for data centers. However, I am not certain of the efficacy of this proposal given that, as stated within the aforementioned notice, exceptions will be made. If a special exemption is made for the proposed data center at the Bonner mill site, what is to prevent similar applications from others? What if entities amend prior applications to include data center upgrades? Much more study and precise policy measures should be enacted. May I recommend a moratorium on all applications, including ones that have already begun?
It's a great idea made into a performative act by the fact that it's not being applied to the Data Center proposed in Bonner. To say that we are concerned about the risks of these being built inside of the city limits but aren't concerned of them being built across from a school outside of the city limits seems spineless to me. And I don't personally care if Krambu "Already began the application process". We should have a vote on whether or not anyone cares. They're not building a data center to help Montanans, they want to take our resources and leave us with the trash.
We totally support Missoula County enacting interim zoning to protect the public from data center development ensuring well defined public safeguards in place for water and power usage/supply as well as community impacts from noise.
Include this in your interim zoning provisions: AI Data Centers, AKA Surveillance Centers, AKA Data Centers, etc. should not be within or activated upon places of youth development, personal and professional. Defining youth as those 17 years or younger, and "within" or "upon" reflecting a minimum of 100 yards.
The elementary school, directly across the street from the proposed Krambu Data Center Site, I think, aside from all other ecological concerns, should be addressed by the interim zoning and future protections of surrounding communities. All data centers in Missoula County and beyond should not be within 100 yards of a place of youth development, including but not limited to; schools, camps, childcare facilities, etc.
I wholeheartedly support interim zoning to place a temporary pause on the development or expansion of data centers in Missoula County. Let's keep our landscape pristine!
I support the proposed interim zoning but do not support exempting the pending Bonner data center application.
The County's rationale for adopting interim zoning is that existing regulations do not adequately address the impacts of modern data centers and that additional time is needed to develop appropriate standards. If the County has determined that the current regulations are insufficient to protect public health, safety, and natural resources, it seems inconsistent to allow a pending project to proceed under those same regulations simply because it entered the application process first.
The purpose of an interim zoning ordinance is to pause development while the County evaluates emerging risks and develops thoughtful, evidence-based regulations. Exempting the project that is already under review undermines that purpose and creates the appearance that the community will bear the consequences of regulations the County itself believes are incomplete.
Missoula County has a responsibility to protect its natural resources, infrastructure, and surrounding communities before—not after—development occurs. Taking the time to establish comprehensive standards first will provide greater certainty for residents, applicants, and future decision-makers alike.
I urge the Commissioners to apply the interim zoning consistently to all proposed data centers, including the Bonner application, until the County has completed its study and adopted regulations that adequately address the unique impacts of these facilities.
I am happy to see Missoula County continue to make thoughtful and community-driven decisions. I am of support of data center interim zoning, and I highly encourage that the Bonner Data Center is not grandfathered out of it. Krambu has submitted three or four failed special exception requests, and I beg to question at what point does these attempts become a waste of civic time? Unless too procedurally complicated, I do not think Krambu should be exempt from the proposed data center interim zoning. If anything, the interim zoning should give Krambu plenty of time to put together an actual approvable special exception request that does not adversely impact the human and non-human community. I hope Missoula County persists in its responsible adherence to policy, regulations, and prioritizing community health by passing a data center interim zoning policy and holding Krambu to that zoning rather than exempting them.