Klickitat County Commissioners: Data center ordinance draft to come

“I was hoping we could have a one-pager,” he said. “It’s not going to be one page. It’s going to be three to five, probably closer to five, because there’s a lot of concerns that have come out from the community that do need to be addressed.”

The solar Energy Overlay Zone (EOZ) amendment has also been scheduled for a public hearing on Sept. 28. The proposal has been refined to include removal of two previously considered expansion areas and adjust the boundary southward. Under the current draft solar ordinance, industrial solar would only be allowed within the new solar EOZ, and BESS (Battery Energy Storage Systems) as a standalone use would only be allowed in the industrial park.

Edelman also said the county was having some problems with Rentalscape, the short-term rental software.

“We registered a complaint about the services we’re getting and they pulled in the management, including the person who sold us the software, and they’ve committed to getting us the information we need,” he said. “We’re still planning, by the end of this week, to have a count of at least a conservative number of short-term rentals in the county.”

An optional portal add-on for the STR software was proposed at $5,000, which would allow online applications, payments, and permit management, reducing staff time from potentially a full-time position to 10-20% of a position.

The data center subject later resurfaced during public comment in the afternoon session. Jacob Wolf of Appleton made a detailed and specific request:

“You declined a moratorium based on the expectation that no developer will apply before an ordinance is complete,” he said. “Please disclose the factual basis for the assurances, including pre-submission conferences, preliminary plans, SEPA materials, anticipated application dates and known interconnection activity. If it rests only on the absence of completed application, please say so.”