Subnational jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-06
Oregon adds a distinctive, mandatory statewide land use layer on top of ordinary local zoning: every city and county must plan and zone in compliance with statewide planning goals set by the Land Conservation and Development Commission, and land outside a city's urban growth boundary is presumptively unavailable for large industrial development such as a data center unless the county can site it under farm, forest or rural-industrial exceptions, which is why several large Oregon data centers (Prineville, Hillsboro, Umatilla and Morrow counties) sit inside negotiated urban growth boundary or rural enterprise zone footprints rather than on ordinary county land.
Oregon also runs the country's most data-center-specific utility statute: the 2025 POWER Act created a mandatory separate retail-electricity tariff class, with its own cost allocation and 10-year minimum contracts, for any "large energy use facility" of 20 megawatts or more that is primarily a data-processing and hosting business under NAICS code 518210, aimed squarely at protecting other ratepayers from data-center load costs.
Oregon's marquee data-center tax incentive is the decades-old long-term rural enterprise zone property tax exemption, which several large cloud and social-media data centers have used for exemptions of up to 15 years. Oregon has no state-level equivalent of California's CEQA; environmental review at the state level is limited to permit-specific programs (air, water, energy facility siting) rather than a blanket environmental impact review of a development approval.
8 instruments on record, grouped by the family of approval each one governs.
Who decides whether a data center may occupy a site, and through what approval?
Applies to both
Authorizes a city to adopt zoning ordinances and to grant discretionary land use permits and zone changes, including the permit and hearing procedures set out for applications and zone changes generally.
Source: Full text of law
Applies to both
Authorizes a county to adopt comprehensive plans and zoning ordinances, including rezonings and conditional or special use approvals for large industrial uses on land outside an urban growth boundary, subject to the farm, forest and rural industrial land requirements of the statewide planning goals.
Source: Full text of law
Applies to government
Every city and county must exercise its planning and zoning responsibilities in compliance with statewide planning goals adopted by the Land Conservation and Development Commission, which include mandatory urban growth boundaries around each city. A local government's comprehensive plan and land use regulations must comply with these goals or take a formal exception to them, and the commission reviews and can order correction of noncompliant local decisions.
Source: Full text of law
What authorizations govern grid connection and onsite generation?
Or. Rev. Stat. 469.300 to 469.619
Applies to both
A site certificate from the Energy Facility Siting Council is required before certain energy facilities, generally larger thermal or generating facilities meeting statutory size thresholds, may be constructed or expanded, and the council's process substitutes for local land use approval of the facility.
A data center's own large onsite backup generator fleet is separately subject to a 2024 reporting duty requiring aggregated generator capacity and fuel-use information to be reported and posted publicly.
Source: Full text of law
Or. Rev. Stat. 757.292 to 757.295 (created by 2025 Or. Laws ch. 323 (HB 3546))
Applies to both
A "large energy use facility", defined as a facility using or able to use 20 megawatts or more of electricity that is primarily engaged in data processing, hosting and related services under NAICS code 518210, must be served under a separate retail electricity tariff classification that the Public Utility Commission requires each electric company to create.
The tariff must allocate or directly assign the costs of serving the facility to that facility's class or to the facility itself, rather than spreading them across other ratepayers, and the commission must weigh grid reliability and the electric company's clean-energy targets in approving it. An electric company must also enter into a contract of at least 10 years with such a facility, specifying a minimum usage-based payment obligation and the date service begins.
The Commission reports to the Legislative Assembly every even-numbered year on load trends from these facilities; that reporting duty is repealed January 2, 2035.
Source: Full text of law
What codes and permits govern the build itself?
Applies to both
The statewide building code administered by the Department of Consumer and Business Services and enforced by local building officials; a data center's building permit and inspections proceed under this chapter's specialty codes.
Source: Full text of law
What permits govern backup generators and ongoing emissions?
Applies to both
No person may construct, install, modify or operate an air contamination source, including a backup generator fleet above the Department of Environmental Quality's classification thresholds, without an Air Contaminant Discharge Permit, and a source large enough to be a major source under the federal Clean Air Act also needs a Title V federal operating permit issued by the department.
Source: Full text of law
What fiscal agreements attach a data center to its host jurisdiction?
Or. Rev. Stat. 285C.400 to 285C.420
Applies to private
A business firm certified by a rural enterprise zone sponsor and the county assessor may exempt a qualifying facility from ad valorem property taxation for 7 to 15 consecutive tax years, in exchange for a school support fee in lieu of property tax after the fifth exempt year and compliance with investment and employment thresholds; a facility costing more than $200 million qualifies under its own dedicated threshold, and the 2025 session amended the continued-exemption and disqualification provisions.
Source: Full text of law
Every entry cites the instrument it describes. None of it is legal advice: verify a citation before relying on it. Full sourcing: read the methodology. The rest of the record: all jurisdictions.