Boulder City Voters Rejected Data Centers in the Eldorado Valley by About 71 Percent

by Ryan Rose

What Happened

The ballot asked: "Should data center facilities be an approved land use within the Eldorado Valley Transfer Area outside of the Multi-species Habitat Conservation Easement?" That wording comes straight from the city's ballot material.

The Eldorado Valley Transfer Area is land southwest of the original Boulder City townsite. The city bought it in 1995. Most of it sits under a conservation easement that protects desert habitat, and that part cannot be developed. Question 1 only dealt with the land outside that easement.

Here is the part many people missed. A yes vote would not have approved a data center. The city's digest said a yes would only let the City Council consider leases for data centers on that land. Any real project would still have needed its own city review. A no vote means data centers are not an approved use there.

The question also came with a money rule attached. Under the city charter, any lease money from a measure like this would be split up. Twenty percent would go to current city operations, 20 percent would go to the Capital Improvement Fund, and the other 60 percent would be divided between those two as the council decided. The digest also said the measure would not raise taxes or fees.

The opposition was organized and very local. Resident Brynn deLorimier told News 3 about roughly 550 hand-painted yard signs placed around town. She called the group "pretty uncompromising." Tara Bertoli, owner of the Boulder City Co. Store, said she voted no because of the strain on energy and resources.

Branden Smith, another resident, told News 3 that a data center does not fit a historic town and that the revenue is not worth the environmental effects. Those three voices give a good sense of what drove the no side: small-town identity first, then water and power.

Not everyone in town was opposed. Before the election, resident Tyson Ballard told News 3 he supported Question 1 as long as companies handled projects the way they promised. He said he believed data centers could bring hundreds of jobs, but he wanted them built safely. Political strategist Tal Eslick told News 3 that developers are having a hard time making their case in small towns.

The Review-Journal, in its report by Alan Halaly, put the no vote at nearly 71 percent and described the result as part of a wider wave of voter pushback on these projects around the country.

Rows of steel cabinets holding servers and network cables inside a data center

Why It Matters to Las Vegas Residents

The first reason is money. Boulder City leases parts of this land for solar power, battery storage and a natural gas plant. The city says those leases bring in millions of dollars each year and help keep property taxes low. The ballot digest said land values for data centers are much higher than other allowed uses. So voters were weighing a possible new income source against the things they did not want to give up.

Supporters made that case in the official ballot arguments. They said many solar leases are nearing their end and that the city could charge at least 10 times more rent per acre for a data center. They also said the projects would be miles from homes and would use very little water after a one-time fill of about 300,000 gallons. Those are the supporters' claims, not findings by the city.

Opponents answered in the same document. They pointed to heavy water and power demands, noise, light, and air pollution from backup generators. They argued that the costs of new power lines and other upgrades could land on ratepayers across the county. They also said data centers offer few permanent jobs once construction is done. Those are the opponents' claims, and they are also not city findings.

Each side also answered the other. Supporters said a yes vote would keep control local, since the council could set water caps, noise limits and local hiring rules in any lease. Opponents replied that the town has always done things differently, and has turned down casinos, adult entertainment and dispensaries even though those could bring in tax money. Boiled down, that was the choice on the ballot: more possible revenue, or keeping the town the way it is.

Water and power are why this matters beyond one small town. Southern Nevada shares its water, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority already bans evaporative cooling for these sites, according to reporting in the Boulder City Review. One proposed project near Boulder City would use up to 167 megawatts of power, KTNV reported. Boulder City told federal officials that load is three times what the entire city uses, according to Nevada Public Radio.

Other local governments are working on this too. KTNV reported that the Clark County Zoning Commission approved an expansion for Switch in June. In Henderson, the mayor asked staff to draft a pause on new data center applications of up to 180 days. The council instead chose to require a development agreement with the city before a project can be built. Every city in the valley is drawing its own lines, so the rules can change a lot from one side of the county to the other.

Background and History

Why did voters get a say at all? Because the Boulder City Charter limits what can happen on this land. The charter allows public recreation, solar energy facilities, a desert tortoise preserve, utility lines, roads and similar uses. Anything else needs approval from the city's registered voters. Voters added geothermal energy in 2007. In 2022, they added clean-energy uses such as battery storage, carbon capture and clean hydrogen.

Boulder City has a long habit of saying "not here." Gambling is banned inside city limits. In 1979, residents passed a controlled growth ordinance that limits building permits each year. A white paper prepared for the city says growth has been held to about three percent a year since then. Michael Green, a UNLV history professor, told News 3 before the election that large-scale development could change what draws people to the town.

The City Council put Question 1 on the ballot in February. At that point, City Attorney Brittany Walker said the city had no requests for data centers. That changed fast. In May, the Planning Commission voted 6-1 to recommend denial of a data center on city-owned land in the Eldorado Valley, near U.S. 95 and Interstate 11. That proposal was outside the Transfer Area, so Question 1 would not have applied to it. Dozens of residents came to the meeting, which ran more than three hours, while a union representative spoke in favor, citing regional jobs.

That May hearing shows what the debate looked like up close. The developer described a 90-year lease that it said could cover about 12 percent of the city's operating budget. Its project manager said a closed-loop cooling system would need a one-time fill of 400,000 gallons, plus about 2,000 gallons a day for kitchens and bathrooms. Commissioner Matt Di Teresa, a retired operating engineer, questioned whether that system would never need refilling, and the company disagreed.

Planning Commission Chair Lorene Krumm said the town was not ready for the project and that the city should set ground rules first. Mayor Joe Hardy had earlier said data centers offer untapped revenue and that officials can bar the use of Colorado River water for cooling or power from the city utility. An online petition against the project had passed 5,900 signatures by the time of that hearing.

Opponents also tried their own ballot measure. It would have required a public vote before any data center larger than 10,000 square feet could be approved on city land. It collected 1,284 signatures, but it needed 1,541 valid ones, the Boulder City Review reported. That effort fell short, which left Question 1 as the main public vote on the topic.

Large field of solar panels in the desert, the type of land use that already earns lease income in the Eldorado Valley

What Happens Next

The vote closes one door, but it does not settle every data center question near Boulder City. The city's digest was clear on this point: land outside the Transfer Area is not limited by the charter, and Question 1 did not change that. So the no vote is about one specific area, not the whole city.

The bigger open item sits on federal land. News 3 reported that opponents are still watching a site on Bureau of Land Management land around Boulder City. The developer behind the city-land proposal, Townsite Solar 2, moved its plan to nearby federal land. The BLM approved the project on June 26 by updating a 2023 approval for a solar and battery plant, and it did not do a new environmental study.

The Boulder City Council voted unanimously to appeal, and environmental groups filed their own appeal. On Sept. 1, Administrative Judge David Gunter of the Interior Board of Land Appeals paused the approval. He wrote that the challengers had made a persuasive case that the agency did not follow federal environmental review law. The company said it respects the process and will take part. We could not find a final ruling as of Nov. 8.

Boulder City has made its own arguments in that case. It says it was not consulted and that the public did not get enough chance to weigh in. It also says the parcel is zoned for energy resources, where data centers are not a permitted use. Nevada Public Radio reported that the company could still build the solar and battery project on that land until December, so a different use of the site is also possible.

Question 1 does not reach that federal site, because the city does not control that land the same way it controls its own. Opponents have said they will keep watching. Brynn deLorimier told News 3 the group is not interested in negotiating, and Bertoli said she would keep opposing data centers if the issue returns to the ballot. The ballot arguments also mentioned another proposal on Henderson land in the Eldorado Valley, which Boulder City voters have no say over. Final, certified vote totals are the other thing to watch for.

Aerial view of Hoover Dam and the Colorado River, close to Boulder City, Nevada

Ryan's Take

I do not think this vote tells you how you should feel about data centers. I do think it tells you how Boulder City works. This is a town that built voter approval into the rules for its biggest piece of land, and people showed up and used it. Whether you agree with the result or not, that is a clear answer.

For anyone buying a home in the valley, here is the lesson I would take. What gets built near you depends on who controls the land. City land, county land and federal land all follow different rules, and a vote in one place may not touch the parcel next door. Boulder City's own story shows it: voters said no on city land while a separate federal case keeps moving.

I would be careful with anyone who gives you a dollar figure for what this vote does to home values. None of the reporting on this vote gives a local number that proves it either way. What is real is that Boulder City leans on land leases to help pay for city services, and that money question does not go away because of one vote. If solar lease income does change over time, the city will have to answer it some other way, and homeowners there should pay attention.

Lake Mead at sunset with rocky desert hills near Boulder City, Nevada

What You Can Do

If you live in Boulder City, read the full ballot material on the city's ballot questions page. It lays out the arguments from both sides in plain language. The City Clerk's office can help with questions at 702-293-9208. City Council meetings are also the place where the next land lease and budget decisions will get talked about.

If you live somewhere else in Clark County, find out who makes land-use decisions for your address. It might be your city, the county, or a federal agency. Sign up for planning commission and council agendas where you live. Most big projects show up there first, long before anyone breaks ground.

If you are shopping for a home, ask about the land around it before you write an offer. Look at nearby vacant parcels and find out who owns them and how they are zoned. That one step can save you a surprise later, no matter what kind of project might be coming.

Have questions about how this affects your home or neighborhood? Reach out to Ryan Rose or text/call 702-747-5921 anytime. You can also email ryan@rosehomeslv.com or visit rosehomeslv.com. Ryan Rose | Real Broker, LLC.