Amazon's $2B Gilroy data center cleared by one staff signature, no public hearing

Amazon's $2 billion, 438,500-square-foot data center in Gilroy was approved on July 3, 2023 by the city's community development director alone — no council vote, no planning commission hearing, no public comment — because 45-year-old M2 industrial zoning permits data centers by right. Decades-old industrial zoning has become the quiet fast lane for siting AI infrastructure around the Bay Area, and Gilroy is weighing code changes to require commission review and neighbor notification only now, with construction underway and the 2024 comment window already closed.

Source: wsj.com ↗