Rio Communities weighs limits on data centers amid water concerns

Rio Communities is moving to lock in its rules before a giant data center can start hunting for land, water and power in the city. The Planning and Zoning Commission took up the issue June 17, and staff laid out the utility, noise and cooling demands that can come with large projects as commissioners signaled they want the city to define the term tightly before any developer comes calling.

The discussion was sharpened by nearby experience in Los Lunas, where Meta’s campus has been described as spanning more than 1.5 million square feet. Meta’s environmental reporting has been cited as showing about 75 million gallons of water withdrawn in 2023, with later reporting citing about 67 million gallons in 2024. Those figures have fed local concern across Valencia County about how much water a similar project could draw from an already stressed system.

Rio Communities’ answer was to get ahead of the market. Commissioners agreed to draft narrow definitions and zoning prohibitions so the city can decide in advance what counts as a data center, where such projects might be allowed and what infrastructure thresholds must be met first. The June 17 workshop, held at 3 p.m., was publicly posted on the city’s meetings page along with the agenda packet, underscoring that the debate is being treated as a formal land-use fight, not just an internal planning exercise.

The stakes reach well beyond a zoning file. A modern data center can shape household water security, electrical capacity, traffic and neighborhood character long before construction begins, and local governments that wait too long to write rules can lose leverage once a proposal is on the table. That is why Rio Communities is trying to set the boundaries now, while it still has room to shape the terms of future industrial development rather than react to them.

The broader Valencia County backdrop helps explain the urgency. Residents and farmers have already pushed back elsewhere over irrigation, wells and future growth tied to data-center expansion, and the Village of Los Lunas has faced public pressure over water use and infrastructure impacts. Rio Communities scheduled follow-up workshops for July 2 and July 16, with the goal of finishing draft language for City Council review before the issue moves any farther.