The Real Story – A Column
On Memorial Day, FOX National News ran its feature story on Hillsboro, Oregon, exposing the deep community distress the ongoing data center expansion is causing our community. Tonight, the Hillsboro City Council will convene in a private Executive Session to consider legal matters related to the massive property tax deals it recently signed, and our most outspoken leader, Kipperlyn Sinclair, will call for strong action.
The FOX broadcast follows months of growing concerns that began right here at home as power and water rates climbed, and more residents came to see the infrastructure boom for what it truly is: a massive industrial footprint leveling hundreds of acres of prime Tualatin Valley farmland.
Once an issue that seemed like “more of the same” in a town numbed by Intel’s decades of construction cranes, data centers have officially jumped from the executive back rooms of City Hall into living rooms across America. The FOX feature follows a regional media surge and an investigative documentary by More Perfect Union that reached millions of households a few months back.
Our local struggle is now a national story.
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The Economic Reality Behind the PR
Fox’s Max Gorden is painting the broad-brush Hillsboro story accurately. From City Hall to the historic Shute Farm, now swallowed up by cement, Max reported to the Nation. A vibrant, historic agricultural city now finds its geographic future heavily committed to massive, humming data fortresses and the private equity firms that back them. The pattern is familiar across the country: a brief honeymoon period of construction jobs, followed by long-term administrative realities. Water utilities are strained, power demand is skyrocketing, land prices are rising, and prime industrial acreage that could support diversified manufacturing jobs is locked up for decades.
On May 7th, the public learned that the City of Hillsboro Economic Development team had solidified 17 transactions extending multi-decade property tax exemptions to these corporate operations. By making these agreements, tens of millions of property tax revenues are carved directly out of our public base.
The primary structural benefit promised to the people of Hillsboro and Washington County from massive industrial zoning (Data Centers) is a robust, shared tax base to fund important things like our City, County, classrooms, and public safety. When those revenues are abated through the year 2051, we have to look closely at the terminology we use to describe these corporate relationships. Are they community partners, or are they simply resource extractors?
The administration’s internal perspective on these automatically triggered approvals was laid bare on May 7th, when a city spokesperson stated on the record to The Oregonian:
“If you meet the requirements, you get approved,” said spokesperson Cindy Dauer. She said companies can sign new agreements for those same sites to cover new buildings and new equipment, and she indicated the city has no latitude to reject agreements that take effect in the distant future. OregonLive – May 7th, 2026
The Timeline of Inaction
In direct response to public concern over the sheer volume and length of these rolling commitments, Hillsboro City Councilor Kipperlyn Sinclair moved swiftly on May 10th to call for an emergency session of the City Council to exercise legislative oversight.
While the request secured immediate support from Councilor Olivia Alcaire, the effort to convene a Council Special Session did not move forward because it lacked the necessary council majority. Mayor Pace and the remaining Councilors had the opportunity, but clearly had no urgency around the matter.
This left all of us in the community to watch the statutory 21-day finality window under ORS 285C.160 continue to tick away. The deals, one by one, have run past that deadline.
On May 12th, KATU News carried another story. The story explained that the City wanted more time to gather all the information about the deals and to review their legality. A work session was scheduled for June 2nd, and that meeting is still on the agenda. We suspect many legal issues will be discussed, and some sort of resolution decided upon, at least regarding the “deals” and whether they will stand, be modified, or be nullified. It seems unlikely much will be altered, but hopefully that is not the case.
The May 26th Closed Door
On May 18th, in a sudden mid-month scheduling shift, the City announced on its website that a special meeting would occur tonight, May 26th. However, this meeting is designated as an Executive Session under Oregon Public Meetings Law, meaning the public will be legally excluded from the room. The official city notice states:
“The special meeting in Executive Session on May 26 will allow the Council to receive legal information related to data centers requesting Enterprise Zone tax abatements and the impacts of House Bill 4084.”
The choice to handle the initial legal evaluation of these 18 “Fire Sale” contracts behind closed doors, rather than in an open, public work session, has energized the local political landscape. This administrative friction undoubtedly played a role in the historic, come-from-behind primary victories of progressive, preservation-minded candidates like Myrna Muñoz for State Senate and Dr. Tammy Carpenter for State House.
The depth of public frustration was on clear display during the May 19th Council meeting, where resident after resident took to the microphone to demand accountability, structural transparency, and immediate intervention before the June deadlines.
Sinclair’s Agenda for Oversight – A Public Statement of Note
Councilor Kipperlyn Sinclair, who has consistently pushed for a comprehensive evaluation of data center impacts on local resources, has explicitly laid out the questions she intends to bring to legal counsel during tonight’s closed-door session:
“At the May 26th meeting, I will ask our legal counsel to identify options to halt the pending data center applications and to establish permanent and transparent public oversight.
I want to consider three actions:•Rescind delegated signature authority: Move final approval of all multi-decade tax abatements from administrative staff to this public dais.•Exclude data centers from the Enterprise Zone: Amend our local criteria and zoning to permanently disqualify data centers from these tax exemptions.•Ensure meaningful public process: Require public hearings and Council votes before any commitment of public funds or tax expenditures.
These three points represent a fundamental shift back toward localized, democratic control over economic development policy.”
Sinclair’s platform is resonating deeply with voters as she heads into a high-stakes fall election for County Commissioner against former Mayor Steve Callaway, whose previous administration oversaw the structural resolutions that created these long-term tax abatement frameworks in the first place.
Moving Forward
For years, high-tech economic policy in the Silicon Forest has been characterized by minimal public engagement, non-disclosure agreements, and redacted documentation. Tonight’s closed-door Executive Session is a continuation of that bureaucratic pattern, and frankly, it has to end.
The community’s response shows that the era of quiet administrative processing is over.
The next opportunity for open public accountability occurs on June 2nd at 6:00 PM for the public work session, followed immediately by the 7:00 PM regular council meeting. Residents will have three minutes to address the council directly on the record. Show up and ask why the administrative calendar is being prioritized over long-term community transparency.
The Herald will continue to track this developing national and local story as the minutes of tonight’s session settle. Sound off with your thoughts in the comments section below.
Dirk, thanks for sharing this. My sister in Idaho called me last week to tell me that Hillsboro was in the National news. What will the City do next? Can they back away from these tax abatements? Thanks Kipperlyn for keeping the pressure on this situation!
I don’t see the point in tax abatements on places that don’t provide a lot of permanent jobs. Other non-data center tech jobs get breaks, but they bring in long-term jobs that often pay well.
Seriously, why do we care if a data center goes elsewhere?
And there it is!!! The $100 Million Dollar Question!
I posted this comment on your Facebook and Nextdoor posts. Thank-you Dirk for keeping us informed. I am studying from afar (my mother recently broke her hip, in Washington needing constant assistance from my sister and I). Thanks for summaries there, I don’t have time now to read the whole article. Have you seen these points already, I detailed below?
Excellent Points from Sinclair, she is really on the ball on this complex topic. As I have said for years now–the only keeper on the City Council!! Hopefully others step up, I have seen a little action. We must take note for future elections. Case in Point: Sinclair’s runoff with Mayor Callaway, who already demonstrated he is FOR all of these Data Centers, and tax write offs.
In my Studies read: Jackson East Final Master Plan and Implementation Strategy.
Saw several Horrifying Points including p. 14: House Bill 4078 brought the 550 acres into the UGB in 2014 and determined that it be planned and
zoned for employment use. Because of this action, Metro designated these 550 acres as industrial
Bad, but THEN HORRIFYING–5 years later:
In 2019 the Oregon Legislature adopted House Bill 2914, which REMOVED the requirement that this 550 acre UGB expansion area be planned and zoned for employment use. Therefore, the final land use designation for Jackson East is to be determined by the City.
So is this how the “final land use” has somehow, undisclosed to residents BECOME Data Centers???
And another Horrifying point–reveals Why there is NO end in sight to Data Center expansion in Hillsboro; Why they KEEP looking for MORE Industrial Land: it has all been given away. I am making some minor assumptions, as of course the actual word “Data Center” is not in the report–but I know what I see being build, and see if you agree with me:
p. 17: the nature of the companies located in the North Hillsboro Industrial Area, which includes a disproportionate amount of well-capitalized technology firms, tends to support an ongoing strategy of LAND BANKING by firms for future expansion. The land banking STRATEGY is critical for larger companies to locate and expand in the area long term, but it also affects the vacant land inventory available to other users active in the current markets. … while the city has a vacant land inventory, that land alone is inadequate to meet the 20-year needs
Then further in the report lists areas they are looking at to add MORE INDUSTRIAL land, especially to the North Hillsboro Industrial Area (“the over 5,000 acres” including this 550 acres of Jackson East — don’t forget TAKEN from ACTIVE farms and rural residents, Just Beginning to be developed — apparently isn’t “ENOUGH”), including North of West Union (which already is Industrial up to this road).
Now I know WHY they keep going after the 1,700 protected acres. And Thrilled Munoz won over Sollman!!!
Yep- you are now one of the few in the public who have synthesized all of the informaiton like I have. It is horrifying.
Please add the link to the information you were reviewing – thanks so much!
Here it is:
https://www.hillsboro-oregon.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/28641/637945353836400000
This explains why it felt as if data center construction gained momentum just as the pandemic was setting in. Lots of that Brookwood and Starr construction got underway as everyone went into lockdown, and it felt as if grey boxes and Imbrie parking lots full of construction crews just sprang up when everyone reemerged.
And the game seemed to be to fill it in as quickly as possible. It’s been mentioned that data centers did so without adding pesky things like traffic or schoolchildren, but while taking in resources and not paying taxes in return. In the meantime, our random anti-ag lobby in town points out that even an abated data center pays more tax and creates more jobs than farmland. 1. Was that the goal of the industrial district: Create a modestly better tax return (and far ecologically worse) than farmland? 2. Would there be such a pressing need to vacuum up land if data centers paid their premium pricing for land, tax, and utilities? 3. If this high-speed game of SimCity was such a triumph of urban planning, why change the zoning purpose five years, plot out data centers under the cover of a pandemic, and paint yourself into a corner of diminished land and energy capacity—so much so that PGE is telling you to go busy yourself for half a decade?
I’m also interested to see what happens in a post-Sollman North Hillsboro. I’m seen neighbors who used to run ranches and shelter animals during wildfires go disturbingly quiet during the past few years as end loaders from the now lightly built Van Rose project scrape by the back of their property. It’s interesting that the city claims it’s powerless to regulate data center development, but regulated these folks’ jaripeo right out of existence because it was in the “city right of way” (aka across Evergreen from a certain politico’s housing development): https://hillsboroherald.com/hillsboro-city-council-to-consider-special-permits-for-use-of-private-property/
Agreed. The City just beat the hell out of the Dog’s Hideaway guy. They have refused anything to help the Haag’s who are now the real life version of the Movie UP! And the list goes on. Little guy gets his/her teeth kicked in while the richest players in the world get a Golden Key and a Jet Hanger. Why ? What is the reason?
Was wondering what was going to happen to Dog’s Hideaway with the police station going in. Seems like an ideal neighbor for storage units and a swamp, but I don’t understand why the city can’t play nice with it.
Meanwhile, the Haags’ farm turned into a cautionary tale that the city wasn’t expecting. The city likely saw the lesson as “get out while you can.” Given how successful the recent anti-data farm rally was at a historic farm literally walled in by them, the lesson is more “don’t set the stage if you aren’t prepared to see how it plays out.” The optics of the Haags’ farm is going to cost a few more politicians their jobs, and it was entirely avoidable.
Right. The fact that they have stayed and slugged it out is amazing. What people do not know if they faced foreclosure and we begged the city for help. I am talking pleading- the answer was NO – it is not part of the economic plan anymore. I had the Winterhawaks wanting to put two rinks in the back acreage for practice facilities and training- with opne skate options. Mr Dias said no. Funny how Top Golf and Go Carts were allowed. The goal now is to hang on for the long term and to stand against the tide and be a reminder of what was lost. Perhaps a historical outpost with events and chances to learn about what not to do. For my part I am glad I have stood by them and been on the journey.
I saw Kevin Foster bring this up the other day and it’s something that’s perplexed me since that Oregon Business story years ago: Hillsboro has the landing cables and a finite supply of industrial land. That isn’t an environment for tax giveaways and incentives: That’s a premium environment.
Consider if this was any other premium commodity: Oceanfront property, rare artwork… in Washington County terms, limited-edition Air Maxes. Interest from those items doesn’t come from carnival barkers standing outside a tent waving handfuls of cash at passersby: It comes from scarcity. It was noted by multiple parties in that story (though not by the city or county) that incentives were being offered without any attempt at negotiation.
You’ve argued before that placing a premium on data centers could bring a tax windfall for the city and county and shore up some of the shortfalls that incentives helped create. However, along with lost revenue, the region lost the opportunity to negotiate with premium partners—partners willing to not only pay in, but play a more active role in the community, make critical investments, and offer resources beyond data centers and unfettered extraction.
When you present as cheap and disposable, your business “partners” will treat you as such.
What if I told you that the City might be making more revenues by giving the EZ deals than it would without them? Would that resonate?
More immediate revenue, perhaps, but I’ve seen the “this is more revenue than farmland generates” argument before, and if that’s the city’s threshold for its industrial land, then I’d hate to see its officials at work at a Royal Moore Dealership. “So what if we were their only cash-paying customer and paid more than sticker price… what were we supposed to do, leave without a car?!”
Not only does it not “resonate,” it doesn’t pass a basic sniff test. If that was the sweetheart deal the city was getting, city officials would be pointing at the scoreboard every chance they had. The Sign Company would be overworked printing out huge displays for Council meetings showing just how much more the “EZ” method brought in versus a negotiated premium. They’d also be conducting business with the doors slightly more ajar, because you actually want constituents to see political wins.
I don’t doubt that there are parties for whom the current arrangement works out just fine: Landowners, developers, construction contractors. But for the city in general? The words “selling itself short” should appear in critiques more often than they do.
We will never see those words from City Hall. This is seen as a win because it is growth for the sake of growth to pay for the tab run up on the last growth push. Hillsboro needs to have a vision of an end point. That would allow the town to mature and for real good changes ot be possible. I see no end in sight!
Excellent points, and something I’ve never heard explained before — Why was Hillsboro willing to have these cables — from China land here?? Is there no concern about that? Would we be a target in war (especially concerning to me now, given Trump’s love of war and alienating our allies).
Dirk was there any City Council involvement in this decision, Any public notice? Given how our City leaders operate I’d say no, but I don’t follow everything. You are my source Dirk — did you see anything???
With the cables here, are we doomed for massive Data Center development. Seems there is no end in sight.
I looked a little further in the Jackson East plan and Strategy and saw page 26, which is the only page data centers are specifically mentioned, in a long list of other Industrial types (can’t copy on my phone typing this)—
but I don’t see this variety happening , anyone see Any other type of industry coming in recently??
and given the abandonment of using this land for employment, which was put into law at State level, where ultimately is this agenda being driven from?? Hopefully it’s Not China!! But who knows.
Hillsboro as a Corporation probably had little to do with the Cables. The first one I saw was 20 years ago and it landed in Tanasbourne on Evergreen Parkway near the theaters. Once a cable route was established, others followed. There are a variety of routes and no one reeally knows where they are save a few select folks. The Cables are the only story – this is why they are here and why they will stop at nothing to stay here. You want to get an eye opener? Log into this. This will open your eyes wide. https://opengridworks.com/power-plants?layers=tx%2Cdatacenters%2Cgas%2Chpoints%2CrowTx%2CrowSubs&panel=closed&status=operating%2Cplanned%2Cconstruction&tech=wind%2Coffshore_wind%2Cstorage%2Cpumped_storage%2Chydro%2Cnuclear%2Cgas%2Ccoal%2Coil%2Cgeothermal%2Cbiomass%2Cother%2Csolar&gasPipelinesOn=1
Thanks
Wow! That really is something.