Eugene bans confidentiality agreements for data centers; Lane County considers same

The city of Eugene has banned city employees from signing nondisclosure agreements for data centers.

City Manager Jenny Haruyama signed an order Wednesday, Sept. 16, directing the city’s more than 1,500 staff to “not sign any NDAs related to data centers,” city spokesperson Elle O’Casey told Lookout Eugene-Springfield.

“City staff have not and will not sign Non-Disclosure Agreements for data centers,” she said.

As in many other communities across the country, the topic of data centers has drawn intense public scrutiny in Eugene. The city ruled last week that a data center is not an accepted use of the 1.2 million-square-foot former Hynix factory in west Eugene under zoning rules. The decision was met with relief by many community members concerned about a data center’s impacts on the environment, public health and neighborhood livability. 

Despite the ruling, more than 70 people packed into the Eugene City Council’s meeting on Monday to call on the city to do more, urging the council to pass a moratorium on new data center construction and ban employees from signing NDAs about data center development.

NDAs are legal contracts between two parties that prohibit the sharing of information deemed confidential or proprietary. The use of NDAs for data center development is a standard practice that has generated blowback nationwide for shielding negotiations between local officials and developers. Bills to ban NDAs for these projects have been introduced in several states.

The city of Salem entered into an NDA with Verrus, a tech company building a $5.1 billion data center in the city, in March 2025. The project was revealed to the public in July 2026. 

On Monday, the Salem City Council voted 8-1 to explore the creation of a city policy addressing the use of NDAs. Earlier in that meeting, Salem’s city manager promised not to execute NDAs for data centers as an “internal policy,” according to the Salem Reporter.

All eight Eugene city councilors promised publicly at their Monday meeting or in subsequent interviews with Lookout this week that they have not, and would not, sign any NDAs in their work as a city councilor for transparency reasons.

But until now, it wasn’t clear whether all city employees would follow the same policy. The Eugene City Code does not explicitly mention NDAs, nor does a 2024 copy of the employee handbook. 

At Monday’s meeting, Councilor Jennifer Yeh asked Haruyama to provide the council with “detailed information” about the city’s policy around NDAs. 

The third-party Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemption Review Panel — which consists of neighborhood representatives and technical professionals selected by the city manager — must sign a “confidentiality agreement,” according to the 2015 ordinance. 

Data centers in city code?

There is no zone in Eugene city limits where hyperscale data centers are an accepted use of land under the Eugene City Code, Mayor Kaarin Knudson said at the Monday meeting.

The city defines hyperscale data centers as facilities that are “very large in size, designed for rapid scaling and meeting the growing demand for enormous computing, storage, and networking workloads.”

“The absence of data centers as a use within our code means that they are not a use permitted in our city,” Knudson said. 

The council is scheduled to hold a work session on data centers and zoning Dec. 14, though councilors told Lookout this week they are trying to move the session earlier.

On Thursday, Lindsay Selser, spokesperson for Eugene’s Planning and Development Department, reiterated that the city will deny future land use and/or building permit applications for hyperscale data centers. 

“Because the reasoning behind the [former Hynix plant] Zone Verification decision also applies in other zones in the City, data centers are not allowed anywhere in Eugene,” she said Thursday. “Data centers are neither specifically listed as an allowed use in the land use code nor do they fall within any existing use category.”

Councilor Eliza Kashinsky, who proposed the work session, said she wants to clarify the “ambiguity” in the city code surrounding data centers.

“We’ve sort of said, ‘Hey, we’ve interpreted this ambiguity to say they are not allowed,’” she said. “But I hope from the work session, what we can get is clarity in the code that is very clear about what is allowed and what is not allowed.”

Council President Lyndsie Leech also wants to see something more restrictive. 

“I would hope that we could actually put it into more of a ‘This is not allowed’ kind of a list,” Leech said.

Selser said the council could choose to explicitly list data centers as a prohibited use, or it could regulate data centers “more granularly” by setting guardrails like size limitations.

County weighs in

Lane County Commissioner Heather Buch asked her colleagues to support a restriction on nondisclosure agreements for data centers. County staff will come back with a report and commissioners will discuss options, possibly as early as October. 

In remarks during a county meeting Tuesday, Sept. 15, Buch pointed to Salem’s handling of the NDA issue and said she’s received emails from constituents about it.

“Although I fully trust staff, they have not necessarily heard from us about our feelings about what an NDA would be when it comes to a potential data center or unnamed industrial complex,” Buch said. “My proposal is that we ask staff to research and prepare a board order that would restrict nondisclosure agreements for data centers.”

That restriction, if approved, may not be permanent. For example, it may only be in place until the state provides a framework with policy guidelines, including incentives and siting standards, for data centers.

At the state level, Gov. Tina Kotek has put a nearly one-year moratorium on approvals for data centers that would be built on state land or buildings, halting the sale of 32 state-owned acres in Salem needed for the proposed data center that was under wraps for more than a year, according to the Oregon Capital Chronicle. 

Other county commissioners appeared open to Buch’s idea.

“We’re basically saying, ‘Do your work out in the open,’” Commissioner Laurie Trieger said. 

County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky said the county’s economic development and legal staff will need to research the topic and get in touch with Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency. 

“We have to kind of figure out, I think, where that sweet spot is in maintaining confidentiality for the businesses that would need it,” Mokrohisky said.

The exact timeline isn’t set. Mokrohisky said he expects it will take at least a few weeks before a report with options comes back to the board for possible action.

This post has been updated to clarify comments made by Leech, to include additional information from the city of Eugene and to add reporting about the county’s position on the use of NDAs.