The Real Story – A Column
While the Hillsboro City Council continues to slow-play changes to zoning ordinances around data centers, more applications are coming in. A high-pressure zoning battle is quietly unfolding on the northern edge of our community. CoreSite Real Estate has submitted a major development application under Case File No. DR-012-26, seeking to construct a massive, phased 547,239-square-foot high-density computing campus at 5420 NE Sewell Avenue. The 19.73-acre property was purchased in September of 2025 for $21,196,812 (Washington County Deed Records) by Coresite Real Estate Hillsboro, LLC from the Walter R. Hordichok Living Trust. That is well over $1 million per acre, folks, which reflects the unique phenomenon in Hillsboro of skyrocketing land prices driven by proximity to numerous trans-Pacific submarine fiber cables that run near this site.
It was only because an adjacent concerned neighbor sent the Herald an email after receiving a mailer that this proposal is even making the news. Otherwise it likely would have been approved without comment. Not to worry, comments did make it into the City and now a handful of residents have legal standing to fight this project should they so choose. Here is a first look at the latest Hillsboro data center to apply featuring a 4 story high building, a first for Hillsboro’s massive DC and AI Computing footprint. The corner of one of the two buildings in the pretty photo below is one of the few with glazing / windows. At over 90 feet high this Data Center towers over others built in the Hillsboro Data Center plains.
While city council work sessions have recently dealt with the explosion of data centers in Hillsboro , which now cover roughly 500 acres across 21 local sites and have taken much of what was once our robust semiconductor land base, this project brings the industrial wave directly to local families’ doorsteps. Residents living in unincorporated Washington County right across the street, such as Dennis and Kimthanh Tokstad, are suddenly facing the reality of a multi-story industrial monolith dominating their rural-residential skyline. They and others on NE Sewell and beyond simply want to continue to live in peace. But based on recent history, data center developers nor the City are too interested in that.
As the City’s Planning Division reviews the engineering drawings, a coalition of neighbors and watchdogs, myself included, has studied the land use application and has had to sift through hundreds of pages to identify the main points of contention. Luckily, one neighbor sent me a copy of the Public Notice, or no one would be speaking up. Those of us concerned aren’t just filing generic protests; we are turning to the City’s own development code text to ask planning staff for guidance, support, and strict enforcement of the law.
Here is an in-depth breakdown of what is happening on Sewell Avenue, what is at stake, and where the developer’s plans conflict with municipal safety guidelines.
📐The Height Setback Escalator: Blocking the “Prison Wall” Effect
The blueprints show that Phase 2 of the project involves building HI2, a four-story, near-windowless concrete data hall that rises 92 feet straight into the sky. Standard building rules in the Industrial Sanctuary (I-S) zone cap building heights at 45 feet.
To protect neighbors from being cast into permanent shadow, the City enforces a strict “Height Penalty Escalator” (CDC Table 12.25.360-1). For every foot a building rises above 45 feet, the structure must step back an extra foot from the property line. For Building HI2, 92 feet minus the 45-foot cap creates a 47-foot excess, which means a mandatory structural setback of 82 feet when added to the existing required setback.
Furthermore, because the developer wants to place surface parking between the building and the road, another code section requires the baseline front yard to be expanded to 75 feet. CoreSite’s plans place the building plane at exactly 75 feet, effectively double-counting the parking buffer to absorb their height penalty. One argument is that these rules must be applied additively, thereby requiring an absolute front-yard depth of 122 feet. Siting the building at only 75 feet short-changes the families living opposite by 7 feet, creating an overbearing wall right across the street.
🌳The 849-Tree Canopy Deficit Buyout Trick
One of the most immediate environmental impacts is the near clear-cutting of the property’s mature tree canopy. According to Langan’s formal Arborist Report in the application, the developer plans to cut down 101 mature trees, and 85 of those are legally protected “Specimen Trees,” primarily native Oregon White Oaks (Quercus garryana). The removal will erase 2,369 diameter inches of mature canopy.
Under municipal code, the removal of mature trees is prohibited unless the developer can prove an absolute engineering necessity. In this case, the spatial constraint is entirely self-inflicted: CoreSite’s own alternative analysis documents explicitly state that a data campus of this scale requires a site “at least 20 acres in size,” yet they are forcing this massive blueprint onto a 19.73-acre lot.
Because they crammed the site with server halls, their landscape layout has room to replant only 99 new trees on-site. To satisfy the legal 1-to-1 replacement ratio and to meet the rules, they owe the community 948 trees (our calculations to be verified). CoreSite is trying to bypass this 849-tree localized deficit by paying a cash fee-in-lieu buyout to the City. Those challenging these assertions are calling on staff to reject this cash buyout, as erasing a local native oak canopy for a cash transaction directly violates the North Hillsboro Plan District’s explicit mandate to protect and vitalize local Oregon White Oaks. This sort of legal point is the stuff land use appeals are made of. Hillsboro has not issued a staff report yet, and this argument may pose challenges for them in answering in favor of the developer.
🌊 3. Erasing 88% of Local Wetlands and Exporting the Resource
The environmental extraction extends beneath the canopy. Wetland delineation reports indicate that the property contains 7.12 acres of high-value jurisdictional wetlands. CoreSite’s engineering layout chooses to physically fill, grade, and permanently obliterate 6.27 acres of these environmentally crucial systems—wiping out 88% of the on-site resource to clear floor space for computer servers.
To satisfy state removal-fill permits, the developer is purchasing mitigation credits from the Dairy Creek Mitigation Bank miles away. Clean Water Services has subsequently issued a Service Provider Letter waiving local corridor enhancement requirements for 147,210 square feet of permanent encroachment.
While this out-of-basin transaction satisfies high-level regulators, it leaves the immediate neighborhood entirely unmitigated. Exporting wetland functionality from the heavily industrialized Rock Creek and Waibel Creek sub-basin permanently deprives our immediate area of natural stormwater filtration, peak flood storage, and localized temperature regulation. This should never be allowed and is a glaring example of how woefully inadequate the Hillsboro Zoning rules and codes are. Truly one of the most impactful projects I have ever seen, but there is an opportunity to enhance the Waibel Creek wetlands and creek basin/habitat directly on the adjacent parcels. This must happen if at all possible.
🥾 4. Encroaching on the Crescent Park Greenway (Segment 4)
The northern boundary of the CoreSite property runs directly adjacent to Segment 4 (the Waibel Creek Leg) of the City’s master-planned Crescent Park Greenway. The primary goal of this regional greenway is to protect the natural sub-basin, execute stream restoration, and provide public access to nature via a multi-use trail network.
The Plan District strictly limits private utility footprints within this special greenspace setback, mandating that private stormwater facilities cannot occupy more than 25% of the total area. However, CoreSite’s drawings map a massive 45,411-square-foot underground stormwater vault system running the entire length of the northern boundary line.
Worse, engineering data confirms that the bottom rock inverts of these hollow plastic StormTech chambers are dug deep into an active, shallow 5-foot seasonal groundwater table surrounded by highly impermeable clay soils. Inverting massive hollow structures within a saturated water table creates a significant buoyancy and hydrostatic uplift hazard. During severe winter rain cycles, these vaults face a real threat of structural shifting and pavement cracking, which could force untreated runoff to backflow directly onto the public greenway and neighboring lands.
🏛️ Proposing Local Solutions and Protective Steps
Rather than simply saying “no,” city planners could consider possible solutions. They could take three code-supported, constructive steps:
- Execute a Canopy Mitigation Transfer: Instead of letting the developer write a check to bypass their tree obligations, the City should leverage CDC Section 12.66.230.C.1.a. This rule allows planners to force the developer to plant and continuously maintain the 849 (or whatever number matches the lost diamter of canopy) missing native trees directly on the adjacent, City-owned wetland parcels along the Waibel Creek corridor, restoring the local ecosystem and providing a natural sound buffer for neighbors.
- Move Utilities Out of the Greenway Setback: Require the developer to respect the 25% spatial cap within the Crescent Park Greenway corridor. This means removing high-hazard, un-enclosed 110-inch-tall open-air Tesla Megablock chemical batteries and proposed permanent backup generation complexes from the buffer zone. This is a no-brainer.
- Delete Underground Vaults for Surface Rain Gardens: Protect local hydrology by replacing deep, unsafe groundwater excavations with surface-level Low Impact Development Approaches (LIDA)—such as bioretention cells and open-air rain gardens integrated safely into the site interior.
🛑 The Next Steps for the Community
Because this high-impact industrial project is currently being processed along a staff-level, administrative Type II review path, it bypasses the standard public hearing boards unless specific structural non-compliances are identified.
I, as a longtime resident, am formally calling on the Community Development Department to closely review these clear calculation conflicts, uphold the strict text of our zoning ordinances, and recommend DENIAL for administrative non-compliance. If the developer cannot resolve these design flaws, the City must formally elevate Case File No. DR-012-26 to a Type III Public Hearing before the Hillsboro Planning Commission so the record can be fully reviewed before any dirt is turned.
A WORD ON HILLSBORO AND THE STATE OF PLAY – After reviewing this article, I hope you can see how much time and energy we put into researching our stories. From spending hours reviewing codes, to taking pictures, finding maps. and being factual- the Herald and I, as editor, are dedicated to our community and to fighting for our residents from all walks of life to be treated equally. This Data Center is worthy of our attention and focus- the trees, the water quality, the sound pollution which can threaten our residents and birds and wild creatures, the massive 100-foot cold and imposing walls… it is all bad for us IMHO.
Hillsboro Process Primer-
- This project is being processed as a Type II approval
- This means only neighbors within 200 feet get a mailer, if they even open it.
- There is nothing posted on the City of Hillsboro’s website to let the rest of us know- not sure why, because we used to do that.
- There is no advertisement in a local paper.
- There is no hearing, no public meeting, no City Council weighing in.
- Only because the neighbors read the Herald and know me a little did we find out. Otherwise this project would be approved without a peep. The deadline to comment on this was July 2nd and we just made the deadline and others we contacted weighed in as well.
- There are a few people who now have the legal standing to be heard, to appeal a decision, if they do not like the outcome, and to try to preserve some of the trees and key points raised above!
- Public Schools have to apply through a Type III – this is a full engagement with the community, a much larger mailing, and robust engagement. Why are data centers given tens of millions of dollars in tax abatements that hurt our schools, environment, and livability, yet not held to at least the same standards? This is unimaginable. And this is all by design and by code. So who wrote the codes and why are we not changing them?
- Hillsboro used to post Type II and Type III on the City website and at City Hall, and they would mail interested parties of any land use actions as they came in. I know because I was a part of that process and received those emails and could look up projects regularly. So what happened? When I ask, I get a blank stare. This is more about blocking and outright withholding information and engagement, and the most anti-transparency thing we could be doing. It gives the City of Hillsboro inside the walls of the building a bad look, and that is not fair, I know. But it does. Many of our residents believe there is something iffy going on and keep calling for transparency. I hear two councilors, maybe three, agreeing with that. But that is all. That needs to change if we are going to get back the trust that has been lost.
Here is Councilor Dr Olivia Alcaire speaking about Transparency and Public Records – she is speaking to this issue. Thanks to this brave Councilor.
I appreciate your coverage of this – you have been one of the earliest voices on this issue, and have raised the alarm on the lack of transparency that has led to hundreds of acres in Hillsboro turned into datacenter sites, forcing out homeowners, agriculture, and businesses. The construction jobs are temporary, but the structural damage to the community with such a large concentration of datacenters is lasting – generational. Thank you again!!
City staff and (most) elected leaders continue to disappoint residents re the expansion of data centers. They appear to be prioritizing data centers expansion and ignoring the community and environmental impact. Hillsboro residents are owed a public answer about why Type II and Type III notices are no longer posted on the City website and at City Hall. And, why data centers are processed under Type II. Council members and candidates should be asked to go on record about this. Backing away from transparency will further erode public confidence in elected leaders, and that can lead to the election of ill-equipped candidates and rational economic development policies.
Why are we not requiring databases to upgrade the community electrical grid to encompass their needs plus 25% – 50g increase to current electrical standard. This also should be a required standard FOR ALL UTILITY improvements – that the data center pays for.
We should also push for significant contribution to roadways, comminity and schools. They NEED to put in their data centers because the internet/data cables from the world travel directly through Hillsboro. They need this – they literally cannot move the data cables and NEED to build in Hillsboro.
Data centers do not employ many, so they are taking up space without contributing equally to the economy. If they want to be here, they should prove their value to the community through paying for their needed upgrades, plus improvement for the community.
City of Hillsboro – be smart. Think to the future. If worked right, Hillsboro can be improved in all aspects.
*meant to say it could lead to IRrational economic development policies. As in, stifling economic development
It’s just unreal how residents are being sold out for the desires of the wealthiest businesses on Earth.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Dirk. The amount of work you put into your reporting SHOWS!!
Please don’t stop. Sincerely, Denise
Since you are anti Data center, perhaps you should do your part and become a print publication. There is a reason why data centers have a 1% vacancy rate.
I have never claimed to be anti-data center. I am against the destruction of the community, of wetlands, or of peace and quiet. I am anti-corporate greed, tax giveaways, heat islands, enormous power consumption. And frankly, we had enough Data Centers a dedace or more ago to power all of Hillsboro and Washington County forever. This expansion here has nothing to do with Data Centers.