Pocatello council to consider next action on proposed data center appeal
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The Pocatello City Council is scheduled to take another formal step Thursday, August 6, in the appeal involving a proposed data center at 1800 River Park Way.
The council’s agenda lists appeal CUP 26-003 as a consent-agenda action. It says the council may adopt its decision regarding the appeal and affirm the Pocatello hearing examiner’s decision on the conditional-use permit.
The scheduled action is not a new construction approval. As of Tuesday, August 4, the council’s action remained pending.
What the council is being asked to do
The August 6 agenda identifies the matter as “Council Decision – Appeal of Conditional Use Permit (CUP) 26-003.” The proposed action is for the council to adopt its appeal decision and affirm the hearing examiner’s decision.
The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the council chambers at 911 North 7th Avenue. The city agenda says the meeting will be livestreamed.
If the council adopts and affirms the decision, the current land-use record would continue to show that the conditional-use permit was denied. That action would not authorize construction or allow the proposed facility to proceed under the denied permit.
July vote affirmed the denial
The agenda item follows the council’s July 16 appellate hearing. Local News 8 reported that council members voted 4-1 to affirm the hearing examiner’s denial. Councilman Bates was the lone dissenting vote.
During that proceeding, the council considered the appeal and the record from the original conditional-use permit case. Local News 8 reported that the council could affirm, modify or reverse the hearing examiner’s decision and could not consider new evidence outside the appeal and original hearing record.
The appeal was filed by Lex Developments after the permit denial. As reported by Local News 8, the company argued that the proposed use should be treated as similar to an allowed industrial use and that the city was requiring information beyond what should be expected at the conditional-use stage.
What the original record says
The hearing examiner’s amended findings identify Gus Schultz as the applicant and Portneuf Capital, LLC, as the property owner. The request concerned a potential data center on two parcels at 1800 River Park Way totaling about 59 acres.
The property is zoned Industrial and has an Industrial future-land-use designation. The record says data centers are not specifically listed in the city’s use classifications, and city officials determined that the proposed use required a conditional-use permit.
The hearing was held May 14, 2026. The examiner’s written decision, dated May 19, denied the permit, finding that the application did not meet the city’s conditional-use approval standards.
The decision said the application did not adequately address whether the project could be served by public facilities and services. It called for additional analysis of power, water and wastewater capacity, air quality, wastewater discharge, infrastructure and long-term operational impacts.
The examiner also found that environmental impacts had not been adequately addressed and that the application did not sufficiently establish that the proposed use would not be detrimental to the city’s public interests, health, safety or welfare.
What happens next
Thursday’s agenda action would put the council’s July 16 appellate decision into formal written action. It would not, by itself, approve a building plan or establish that the proposed data center will be built.
The next step for the developer depends on the council’s action and any further administrative or legal response. Local News 8 reported that additional legal action was discussed as a possibility, but the sources reviewed for this article did not confirm a lawsuit or other new filing.
For nearby residents and city officials, the case remains a test of how Pocatello handles an industrial use that is not specifically listed in its classifications when the permit record raises questions about utilities, infrastructure and environmental impacts. For the developer, an affirmed denial would leave the proposed use without the requested conditional-use permit unless another available process is pursued.
The council’s August 6 meeting and the outcome of the CUP 26-003 action were pending as of Tuesday, August 4, 2026.
Sources
- Pocatello City Council agenda for August 6, 2026
- Pocatello hearing examiner amended findings and decision
- Local News 8 report on July 16 council action
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