EUGENE, OREGON · DATA CENTERS
Archive item · Events of September 8 – 24, 2026
What happened: Eugene’s planning director ruled on September 8 that a data center is not allowed at the former Hynix semiconductor campus at 1830 Willow Creek Circle, Lookout Eugene-Springfield’s Grace Chinowsky and KLCC’s Rebecca Hansen-White reported. The ruling answered a zone verification request filed for an unnamed client.
Claim: The applicant argued a data center qualifies as an “information technology services” use, which the site’s E-1 employment zone allows.
Check: The city disagreed. The director wrote that the council in 2001 could not have intended that category to cover large modern data centers, and that the E-1 zone is meant for employers with substantial workforces. The decision can be appealed to Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals.
Concern: The city cited energy use, noise, water use and cooling as likely effects on neighbors, and noted that data centers employ few people.
Outcome: On September 24, owner Stratacache listed the 1.19-million-square-foot building for sale. The listing says the city “has indicated that they will resist data center uses,” KLCC’s Zac Ziegler reported.
Location Decision takeaway
Older industrial zones rarely name data centers, which leaves room for arguments by analogy. A former chip plant looks like ideal data center real estate, but a local zoning code built around jobs per acre can rule it out.
Original reporting: Grace Chinowsky, Lookout Eugene-Springfield, September 8, 2026; Rebecca Hansen-White, KLCC, September 9, 2026. Follow-up: Zac Ziegler, KLCC, September 24, 2026.
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