Hillsboro Council Divided at Data Center Work Session — Dr. Alcaire Pierces the Bureaucratic Veil

The Real Story – A Column

HILLSBORO, OR — The air inside the Hillsboro City Council chambers on Tuesday night was thick with a palpable sense of political crisis, as uncomfortable as the rooftop of a Hillsboro Data Center in August. Seven weeks of swelling public anger, explosive social media posts, and a flood of frantic constituent emails over North Hillsboro’s compounding data-center boom culminated in an intense late-night work session.  They came on the promise that the Mayor and Councilors would report on the legal standing of the 17 Tax Enterprise Zone deals that had been signed.   The last statement in the Mayor’s post from early May has not been addressed adequately, if at all.  The facts are that those deals are done. And more and more have followed.

Let this article serve as a historical record of a pivotal day in the future of Hillsboro, Oregon.  Our Council had a gut check.  Two of them rose, and four of them kicked the can down the road.  At the end of this article, look at who is tied to whom and why people might do the things they do.  There is always an answer to the question “Why”?

Pace and four of the Hillsboro City Councilors would not support the call by Councilor Kipperlyn Sinclair and Councilor Dr. Olivia Alcaire for a special or emergency meeting on May 11th.  Those Councilors (Anvery, Case, Harris) came in as part of a slate that ran with Mayor Pace.  The group of four then selected Councilor Cristian Salgado to fill Pace’s vacancy once she moved to Mayor.  Hundreds of residents turned out for the Work Session on June 2nd to hear more about Data Centers and Tax giveaways.  That evening failed to produce any action on a Moratorium or restrictions of any kind.  Forty residents testified against Data Centers during the public comment session, and it was heated like the roof of the North Hillsboro Data Center.  People left angry or angrier than when they came, and feeling as if they were not being heard.  

That led to this past Tuesday’s meeting, which was a “special work session” planned on top of the first Hillsboro Tuesday Night Market (hmmm), making parking for the meeting next to impossible and reducing attendance.  As dozens of local residents watched from the crowded seats in the smaller meeting room, a stark ideological rift tore through the city’s governing body.

On one side stand Councilor Sinclair and Alcaire, who are done waiting and are demanding immediate, aggressive land-use rollbacks using tools the city already has on the books. On the other side sits a dominant “slate of four” councilors who have instead pivoted toward a longer-term, slow-moving approach wrapped in economic nuance, regional studies, and delayed legislative timelines.  This is the delay, slow-play, and wear-out-the-public approach.  Why are they doing that?  You decide.  What I see are leaders who are not listening to the news, to the hundreds of people coming forward to be heard, and to the urgent calls nationwide to slow down or stop this Data Center and AI push.

The 45-Day Emergency Blueprint Ignored – Sinclair’s Plan Denied

The high-stakes debate centered around a critical mechanism: Hillsboro’s Community Development Code. Code Policy Project Manager Rachel Marble dropped a bureaucratic bombshell early in the night, admitting that while a standard code amendment takes a grueling 80 to 90 days of red tape, it is not an ideal process, and the city is statutorily hamstrung because land-use applications legally vest the moment a developer applies.

In other words, under standard timelines, more data center mega-campuses will easily slip through the cracks.

Recognizing the immediate threat data centers pose, Councilor Kipperlyn Sinclair introduced a meticulously drafted legal blueprint to halt speculative land grabs immediately. Sinclair proposed an Emergency Ordinance leveraging existing zoning precedents from August 2022 (Case File: CDCA001-19) that restricted data centers in the Jackson East subareas.  The facts, folks, are that most of the industrial lands the Data Center players and their ilk have not bought up in our City are the lands with zoning that prohibits Data Centers.  That is the direct result of the zoning language we have on our books now, and it can be applied to all of the lands in the Industrial zones within two council sessions or 30 days.  As Staff Planner Rachel Marble pointed out, a notice to the DLCD and to the property owners would also come into play, so it would take 90 days to get a code ammednment completed. 

Look at the 450+ acres in blue and yellow on the map below.  That is where Data Centers are not allowed, which is why the land sits vacant without red or green icons, which are data centers built or being built in Hillsboro as part of this non-stop onslaught.

Sinclair’s fast-acting proposal sought to do four things within a tight 40-to-45-day legislative window:

1. Strip Permitted Use Status: Immediately remove data storage as an outright allowed use across all industrial zones citywide.

2. Enforce Accessory Siting Only: Force computing facilities to become strictly secondary, subordinate infrastructure attached to heavy physical manufacturers.

3. Mandate Job Density: Implement a binding covenant requiring any site utilizing data infrastructure to maintain a verified minimum of 15 permanent, full-time jobs per acre.

4. Trigger the Emergency Clause: Invoke an immediate effective date upon passage, freezing the local playing field while broader policies are written.

“This ordinance exercises our sovereign authority over local land-use law to protect our unlimited industrial land supply, preserve utility capacity, and mandate high-density employment,” Sinclair declared passionately. Councilor Olivia Alcaire threw her full weight behind the emergency push, slamming the status quo: “We are in the mess that we’re in right now, have lost the trust of the community… All we’re doing right now is going to catch up… It’s not just about making money. And I think that’s why people are so angry about this”. Councilor Kipperlyn Sinclair

Sinclair and Alcaire stressed urgency, and perhaps the timelines are not 45 days, but she for sure tried to get movement at the meeting and a vote to move ahead with a plan.

Her definitive plan for immediate action was supported by Dr. Alcaire, who was brilliant throughout the night, cutting to the core with straightforward questions and commentary.  This 2 term Councilor is done playing around.  She laid it all on the line.

Here is a taste:

Dr Olivia Alcaire – City Councilor – June 9th-2026 –  “I think we need to change what we’re doing And I think because it’s data centers and because we are in the mess that we’re in right now have lost the trust of the community have had a lot of speculation from across the region about this I would support this what Kipperlyn  is suggesting right now and to take action on the way that this all went down I think that would demonstrate some transparency We could possibly gain some more public trust and it can be a lesson on okay so if this isn’t gonna be a long-term thing how do we go forward Ma- And having public trust and transparency about what we’re doing We didn’t do that with this We did this with Enterprise Zone We did not do that with data centers We don’t know the environmental impacts We don’t know the health impacts I have been looking at those The whole country is talking about those except for here I’m s- I’m surprised that we’re not talking about that here I don’t know if if we can uh monitor regulate watch what’s happening and be ensured there isn’t any health impacts or environmental impacts But without that what are we doing this for We’re just making money We’re generating money and we’re sacrificing people’s wellbeing Somebody said earlier maybe we can get land back Well the land’s been ruined The land cannot be used for something else We’ve heard testimony People are here It’s late There– I’ve heard nothing of human impact of how people are gonna be s- dealing with this long before we’re all gone from council That’s what we’re doing That’s the legacy that we’re setting forth What is wrong with finding out and doing this and I would say temporarily so we can make sure and get back on track with what this is for We’re not doing this This goes against what the Enterprise Zone was created for We know that We’re doing this because Cotec told us we had to Now that moratorium date is gone all we can do now is make sure that from here on we’re gonna make sure we’re not gonna have any more impacts We’re not gonna have any more loss It’s not just about making money and I think that’s why people are so angry about this We’re not even talking about that They’re here Acknowledge why they’re angry”

“…what are we doing this for? We’re just making money. We’re generating money, and we’re sacrificing people’s well-being. Somebody said earlier that maybe we can get the land back. Well, the land’s been ruined. The land cannot be used for something else… We’re not doing this. This goes against what the enterprise zone was created for. We know that we’re doing this because [Governor] Kotek told us we had to… It’s not just about making money. And I think that’s why people are so angry about this. We’re not even talking about that. They’re here. Acknowledge why they’re angry.”  Councilor Dr Olivia Alcaire

The Slate of Four Opts for “Nuance” and Delay

Despite the clear sense of an unfolding civic emergency, Sinclair and Alcaire found themselves isolated. A cohesive voting bloc of four councilors.  City Councilors Saba Anvery, Elizabeth Case, Cristian Salgado, and Council President Rob Harris consistently pushed back against immediate intervention, favoring looking into options, long-term administrative pathways, and macroeconomic calculations.  They were invested in discussions about solutions, but there was no real sense of urgency.  This was a textbook strategy- talk about a Moratorium, about environmental rules being tightened, possible noise studies, etc., and kick the can down the road and hope the angry mob abates, just like our property tax giveaways to the data centers.

Instead of enacting Sinclair’s strict, ready-made job covenants or immediate code rewrites, the majority directed Economic Development Director Dan Dias and City Manager Robby Hammond to look into options for:

Land-Use & Zoning

• Evaluate a Category Change: Look into the possibility of creating a new code definition or sub-options for data centers. (Dias: “We can take that back and look at that.”)

• Explore Geographic Limits: Have a conversation about where data centers might be allowed or precluded in the future.

• Study a Moratorium: Investigate the legal steps and establish the “facts on the ground” to see if a temporary development pause is even viable. (Harris: “It’s just authorizing the staff again to explore it.”)

Environmental & Site Design

• Look into Design Options: Consider encouraging multi-story buildings and looking at environmental impacts like noise and solar readiness. (Anvery: “maybe going multi-story, things like that. So really looking at the environmental impact.”)

Financial & Tax Policy

• Have a “Policy Conversation”: Bring back options for the council to discuss regarding how the Community Service Fee is calculated. (Dias: “come back with a conversation, a policy conversation around the community service fee”)

• Analyze the $55M Fund: Do an analysis on how the city might legally partner with the school district or other entities to spend the Enterprise Zone funds. (Hammond: “That’s absolutely some analysis that we want to do.”)

Transparency & Process

• Figure out Better Notifications: City Manager Hammond committed to finding a way to let the council know faster when an application comes in. (Hammond: “I can do that, and I’ll figure out how to do that.”)

• Consider Neighbor Alerts: Look into whether the city can issue courtesy notices to adjacent areas, such as North Plains.

There are a lot of very good things in all of those asks.  But friends, it is too little and too late.  32 data center Buildings are open.  Another 10-15 are in permitting.  And more on what is left of the horizon.  Very few of these things will matter because all those projects will be done and not subject to anything different from what we have.  Sinclair’s proposals would have frozen things and blocked any more data centers for now, and they were and still are the only legal ways to tighten things up quickly.  Much stronger than a moratorium, and it could prevent what appears to be another wave of projects.  These other items would have worked 3 years ago, and may work if and when we expand our Urban Growth Boundaries.  But the urgency we needed from the Council did not manifest itself in even one of the four on the panel.  Not one.

Other observations on the night- all 5 hours of it. As we look at the specific comments and soundbites, it is not hard to see what we are really up against.

Councilor Elizabeth Case who is a former President of the Washington County Chamber and a paid consultant for Senator Janeen Sollman and Mayor Beach Pace framed the issue not as an environmental crisis, but as a delicate macroeconomic tightrope, cautioning against moving too fast and putting the State of Oregon’s interests on an equal or higher plane than Hillsoro residents: “We are the economic engine of the state of Oregon here in Hillsboro. And so what we do matters for our jobs, our friends and neighbors’ livelihoods, as well as our own”.

Councilor Cristian Salgado (former PGE, Intel, and Washington County Employer) aggressively deflected the conversation away from wholesale zoning prohibitions, arguing that the city must focus on fine-grained, long-term technical details. “I invite you all to remove the politics out of this. This is a math problem, right? That’s all it is. It’s a math problem,” Salgado asserted, pushing for staff to take months evaluating structural utility credits for low-income residents and sizing up different parameters for small co-location facilities versus hyperscale footprints.

Meanwhile, Councilor Saba Anvery  (Intel Foundry, which is closely tied to AI-Data Center chip and tech) stoutly defended city administrators, defusing the urgency by pointing out that the recent, alarming avalanche of 17 standalone data center applications filed between March and May of 2026 was completely legal under rules authorized by previous councils. “The staff is doing exactly what the council told them to do,” Anvery insisted, steering the council’s focus toward how the city might strategically invest its newly discovered, restricted $55 million Enterprise Zone fund balance over the next several fiscal cycles.

There were some good ideas and solutions outlined in the Council work session packet.  They can all be found in this attachment right here.  Councilor Memos

The Bureaucratic Compromise

Ultimately, Council President Rob Harris (with a long legal career in Hillsboro and as former President of the Washington County Chamber) masterminded a procedural compromise that effectively buried Sinclair’s 45-day emergency lane. Harris steered the majority to authorize staff to investigate a statutory land-use moratorium alongside standard text amendments.

While a moratorium does pause development, planning staff explicitly noted that it will be used as a buffer to buy time for slower, more methodical development code updates, a far cry from the immediate sovereign legislative freeze demanded by the community.  For this writer, I do not see the legal basis for a Moratorium against one industrial user group.  These are the richest companies in the world we are talking about; they own the Data Center, and the tech bros own them.  The word “Moratorium” sounds nice, but it is not doable.  If it is, it will be a long legal process, and again, the land will all be gone.

As the meeting wrapped up near midnight, City Manager Robby Hammond confirmed that a rapid turnaround is out of the question. “There’s a lot here, and I don’t… know that yet,” Hammond told the council. “It’s going to take me and the staff some time to figure out how to parse this out. What steps need to happen first?”

For the hundreds of Hillsboro families worried about their groundwater, skyrocketing electricity prices, and the quiet erasure of their industrial job base, City Hall’s answer was clear: the immediate crisis on the ground will continue to be met with administrative patience, long-term data tracking, and economic nuance.

Hillsboro was let down this week.  We were owed more action.  And ultimately, there will likely be little pause in this crisis, as it will only heat up and continue to boil as the Summer sun beats down on the 500 acres of concrete, steel, and asphalt. This emerging and hated industry has no heart, no Community focus or concern, and they are not going away.  You do not meet strength with weakness.  This strategy is weak, and across town in Data Center Alley, they are rubbing their hands and raising a cold one.

I will let Dr. Alcaire close this article out as she addressed the Power 4-

That’s important.

That is important. I never took corporate money. I don’t work for a tech company. I don’t have interests up

there. I am concerned that the people in my ward are predominantly low-income

are going to have to face this, and you’re going to sit there and just be okay because you want the staff to do

their job.

Sometimes we have to intervene, ask questions of staff, and sometimes we have to make a change.

I have never been around people so unwilling to do that. And it’s your role to do that.

But you go ahead. Yeah.

Because now I think we got to fight now for environmental impacts.

And we need to know that.

We’re going to need to know what’s going on with our water because of the way that we’re doing it.

We are not establishing trust with the community.

We’re not.

You can act like we are.

We are not.