Willamette Valley Neighbors
AGAINST DATA CENTERS
Join us in our efforts to slow or stop the development of
Oakline at Mill Creek data center.
WHAT IS IT?
Oakline at Mill Creek is a hyperscale data center proposed by California-based Verrus on 3 parcels in the Mill Creek Corporate Center in southeast Salem. As initially proposed, the campus would include three buildings totaling 654,000 square feet plus a utility substation designed to support cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and enterprise services. Initially, it was 75 acres. It’s now 100 acres, based on the submitted land use application. See PROJECT page for more current and detailed information.
WHY THEY SAY IT'S GREAT?
The estimated value of the project is $5.1 billion. The City’s 2026 assessed valuation is approximately $16.7 billion. The developer and City estimate that the project will generate:
$9 million in annual property tax revenue, AFTER the already approved, three-year property tax exemption expires; electrical franchise fees based on the site’s electrical consumption (not estimated); temporary construction jobs for a thousand trades people; and 75 permanent, professional jobs at build out. And they say the project will be built with new, environmentally friendly technology they have never built before…
HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
Under the City's current development code, data centers are allowed by right within the Employment Center (EC) zone, which covers the Mill Creek Corporate Center. So, if a development application meets the standards in the code, staff will approve the project administratively. Sadly, the development code was not updated to address the rapidly changing scale and function of emerging hyperscale centers in recent years. And the current code is inadequate to effectively address potential environmental and community harms.
CAN WE STOP IT?
On August 3, 2026, the City Council unanimously directed staff to initiate the process to establish a moratorium on AI data centers, which will take a minimum of 50-60 days before effective. In the meantime, any applications filed before the moratorium is effective will be reviewed under the current rules. Because Verrus submitted a formal land use application on July 30, now begins the process to scrutinize every detail of the application to find any loop hole and inconsistency in their proposal. And we must keep the pressure on our local and state officials to address the harms caused by these hyperscale facilities.