Californians are not raving fans of data centers. As CalMatters reported last July, a Public Policy Institute of California poll about environmentental issues found that almost 3 out of 4 Californians (73%) oppose data centers. Data centers - the buildings that house computer servers that support AI, provide cloud storage for your emails and pander to social media posts - require enormous amounts of energy and water. Their use of fossil fuels and their back-up generators contribute to air pollution and climate change problems. Their cooling systems and diesel generators are disturbing sources of noise pollution. Once built, their economic benefits to a community are minimal - they employ few people and do not generate sales taxes. Californian's opinions about data centers are in line with national perceptions. Cities are beginning to ban them. As for counties, not so much.

The Sacramento News and Review reposted an article from The Sacramento Observer today about how easy it is to get a data center approved by Sacramento County instead of the City of Sacramento. And they managed to make it an election story by focusing on two City of Sacramento residents competing for a seat on the Board of Supervisors. The underlying theme of the article is about governance. The citizens of the City of Sacramento have local control over land use decisions. The article wondered whether having either of those candidates on the Board of Supervisors will matter.

Here in the vast unincorporated UnCity, the Board of Supervisors are in charge of municipal affairs, including land use. And while all the Supervisors have SOME unincorporated territory within their districts, only one of them - District 3 (Desmond) - has a sizeable chunk. In that District, the unincorporated area communities make up about 2/3 of the population. Perhaps 1/3 of District 5's (Hume) residents and maybe 8-10% of District 4's (Rodriguez) residents live in unincorporated territory. District 2 (Kennedy) consists of mostly the City of Sacramento plus "The Finger", a sliver of unincorporated land along Stockton Blvd and in the vicinity of Florin Mall. District 1 (Serna)'s unincorporated territory is the sparsely-populated land north and west of the airport and the primarily-industrial land at McClellan Business Park. In total, the unincorporated UnCity has more people than the state of Wyoming. Can a county government handle municipal issues for such a large population across such a large area? Answer - no, not really. That is why land use decisions in the UnCity are driven by developers instead of the citizenry.

Frankly, we applaud the News and Review for its accurate description of one of the ways the County has cut its constituents out of the land-use decision-making process by letting the Zoning Administrator (a staff person) make the final decision. Here's what they said about how the County avoided having it's Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors deal with the proposal for a 150,000 s.f., 18 megawatt data center at McClellan Business Park:

The article added that the project was swept under the radar via prior approval of land use strategy for McClellan Business Park that allowed "deviations" from development standards (illegal under state statutes that restrict such variations unless there are certain specific, extremely rare circumstances). The article also said that before going to the Zoning Administrator, the project underwent design and environmental review, surrounding property owners received legally required notice, and the North Highlands Community Planning Advisory Council voted 4-0 to recommend approval. What the article DID NOT say was that design review is a staff function, environmental review is supposed to involve public notice/review/comment and mitigation, legally required notice means only property owners within 500 feet of the project were told, and the CPAC's role is merely advisory, about ascertaining public opinion, not about granting project approval. Such nuances are generally hidden from public view unless revealed by diligent journalism, something rarely practiced for the UnCity.

So, while data centers may be unpopular, and while some cities are taking a hard line against them, here in Sacramento County the land use approval process is a predisposed promoter. Many UnCity residents -  including a growing number of them in Arden Arcade and nearby communities - already feel skeptical about the County's land use and decision-making processes. They see easy approvals for data centers as just another example of how the County fails to act in the best interests of residents, neighborhoods and communities. For them, it's just business as usual. It's not news. Maybe someone should tell that to The Sacramento Observer and the Sacramento News and Review.