Missoula County hits pause on data centers

by Arren Kimbel-Sannit

The Missoula County Commission voted Thursday to adopt a temporary moratorium on new data center development, designed to give the county time to craft and adopt more robust energy, water and safety regulations. 

Ahead of the vote, Commissioner Dave Strohmaier told the crowd at the meeting that Missoula County will now be “at the tip of the spear in the state of Montana and taking a deep breath to take a deliberative, methodical approach … to assess the impacts of data centers on our communities, on our citizenry and on our county.”

The moratorium — technically an emergency change to the zoning code — prevents the development or expansion of data centers for the next year. The vote comes a few days after plans for a data center at the somewhat beleaguered Bonner Industrial Park were scuttled. The owner of the land, Mike Heisey, pulled his support for the project — proposed by Idaho-based developer Krambu — after “hearing from the public and understanding what the concerns are,” he told the county. 

Local activists had appeared at city and county meetings, circulated petitions and generally raised hell about the prospect of a data center coming to the site. The data center, they argued, would turn Missoula’s energy, water and land into corporate profits and AI slop while providing little in the way of job benefits. 

“Do we really want this industry in Montana?” Paul Barmore, a metals artist and fly-tier who circulated the petition, said at a community meeting earlier this year. “I don’t see any argument for why we do.”

Members of the public who showed up to the meeting were supportive of the moratorium, though some wondered why it couldn’t be a more general measure with a longer lifespan. 

But this is an emergency measure, one that can be adopted quickly, but that, under statute, must be justified by some emergent event. The law says that one acceptable circumstance is if the emergency measure prohibits “any uses that may be in conflict with a contemplated zoning proposal that the legislative body is considering or studying or intends to study within a reasonable time.”

That’s what is happening here. The county commissioners are adopting the emergency moratorium on the basis that they are considering longer-term rules around data centers. Given the extensive timeline of large real estate and industrial developments, it makes sense that the law would have a way to prevent a flood of applications just before the adoption of long-term ordinances regulating one practice or another. 

Another important aspect of the law limits the duration of the moratorium to an initial six-month period with the possibility of two extensions — hence the short term of the regulation. 

It’s also possible that the powers that be don’t find the county’s justification persuasive. As County Commissioner Josh Slotnick noted during the meeting Thursday, the Montana Legislature may reconvene in 2027 and try to change the law or otherwise prevent the county from exercising it in this way. 

“The legislature has a proud tradition of un-doing what Missoula County has just done," Slotnick said.

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Exit, pursuing a PhD

Just over two years ago, I moved from Helena to Missoula to begin a master’s degree in environmental studies at the University of Montana. I had quit my job as a politics reporter at Montana Free Press, and I was determined to get as far away from journalism as I could, at least for a time. 

But old habits die hard. And for years, the main way I engaged with my community was writing about it. So when I found myself in a new place — especially one as beautiful and caring as Missoula — it wasn’t long before I was writing about it as well. Plus, I needed the money — call it enlightened self-interest.

In the time since, I’ve written dozens of stories and editions of this newsletter. Now, some bittersweet news of my own: I’m moving back to my home state of Arizona to start my PhD in human geography at the University of Arizona. As such, this is my last issue of Fresh Press. 

In the past two years, I’ve covered everything from cat killings in the Rattlesnake to PFAS contamination in our rivers. I paid special attention to housing, no doubt the political and economic issue at the top of mind for many of our readers. I gave extensive coverage to the city’s code reform process, designed to add infill housing to most Missoula neighborhoods, its new land use plan, and the several new developments of both affordable and market-rate housing that are sprouting up on city-owned land. 

And I wrote frankly about the city’s repeated failure to address the needs of chronically homeless Missoulians, who received the boot from both city parks and from the Johnson Street Shelter during the last two years. 

My time at The Pulp and at UM also coincided with some major leadership changes. Seth Bodnar, the university’s president since 2018, resigned earlier this year to make an independent run for U.S. Senate. That he had political aspirations wasn’t particularly surprising, but the fact that he would run for such a high-profile office without partisan backing (depending on who you believe) certainly was, at least to me. 

I’ve also tried to bring some of my own expertise — and perspective — as a politics reporter to the fore. Perhaps my favorite piece centered on the future of the Montana Democratic Party after the defeat of Jon Tester in 2024. And who could forget my revealing — perhaps too much so  — sauna sit-down with Democratic U.S. House nominee Sam Forstag, months before he won a hotly contested primary.

I highlight those stories because they represent something essential to how I approached this job. I never tried to be your go-to news source. I didn’t even really try to break news, as such. But I always endeavored to provide context, commentary and a voice that was funny, familiar and honest.

Enter Alex

Taking my place, at least in the near term, will be my old coworker Alex Sakariassen. Alex and I worked at Montana Free Press together, he as an education reporter and me as our chief politics hound. 

I can think of few better people to explain the intricacies of school funding and property taxes. But he’s not (just) a nerd. I’ve seen Alex write moving narratives, detailed explainers and sharp-elbowed accountability stories, both for MTFP and in his more recent work for The Pulp. 

Most importantly, he’s someone who found Missoula more than two decades ago and had made it his home since. I've always known him to love it fiercely but not uncritically. And in Alex, you’ll have something you never quite had with me — historical memory. (Not that I’m calling him old, necessarily…)

I’m so excited to see what he and the rest of The Pulp crew do with the firehose of news that buffets Missoulians each day. 

Thank you for reading,

Arren

The ledger #️⃣

37

The number of active fires in the state as of July 10, including four in nearby Ravalli County. On July 9, the Missoula County Fire Protection Association increased its fire danger designation to HIGH for all lands within Missoula County.

The week ahead 🗓️

• On Tuesday, July 14, the city hosts a drop-in "City Chats in the Parks" event at Southside Lions Park from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Staff from Missoula Parks and Recreation, the Parking Commission and City of Missoula Brownfields will be on hand to answer questions about current projects. No formal presentation — just show up.

• On Thursday, July 16, at the Elks Lodge, representatives from the Western Montana Democratic Socialists of America, the Unhoused Neighbors Union and the Missoula Tenants Union will hold a panel discussion on social housing as part of the DSA’s Socialist Speaker Series.
  

Find a list of all upcoming city meetings here and county meetings here.

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