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The Lane County board unanimously passed a motion Tuesday asking staff to draft a proposed policy that could ban county officials from signing NDAs with data center developers.
The Lane County Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a motion Tuesday, Oct. 20, asking for a draft policy that could ban county staff from signing confidentiality agreements with data center developers.
At the request of Commissioner Heather Buch, the county’s community and economic development manager, Jason Harris, presented a policy memo about the implications of a ban on nondisclosure agreements, or NDAs. NDAs are legal contracts between two parties that keep information confidential. The memo read in part:
“By requiring county staff to refrain from signing nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) for data centers or undisclosed industrial sites, the proposed Lane County board order would address emerging concerns surrounding data centers and large industrial facilities, ensuring public development decisions remain transparent. The order would also require staff to notify the Board of Commissioners regarding inquiries for data centers or undisclosed industrial facilities, and to engage in transparent, public processes related to these types of projects.”
NDAs for data centers have been common practice across the country, but have resulted in limited – or no – public knowledge of land-use and business deals in the works. In 2025, Salem also entered into a nondisclosure agreement with Verrus, a tech company building a $5.1 billion data center. The public learned about it in July this year.
“There have been reports in other parts of our state where staff entered into a nondisclosure agreement with a potential data center site, and their board of commissioners had no idea, and then they heard about it from the public, and that is not a position that I think is good for us or any other elected official,” Buch said.
According to the memo, county staff have not received or entered into any NDA requests or applications. The commissioners oversee county land outside cities and urban growth boundaries.
“This topic is being discussed in our community at breakneck speed,” Buch said. “People are pretty galvanized about it, and they want their government to be as transparent as possible.”
Locally, data centers came to the forefront in July when a land-use attorney, on behalf of an unidentified client, asked the city whether a data center would be an allowed use of the former Hynix building in west Eugene.
The city notified the attorney Sept. 8 that a data center is prohibited under existing zoning for the property. About a week later, Eugene City Manager Jenny Haruyama signed an order that formally barred city employees from signing nondisclosure agreements agreements. Oct. 19, Springfield City Manager Nancy Newton clarified to the council that the city does not participate in NDAs.
Community concerns largely stem from the environmental and public health impact of data centers, which require extensive amounts of energy to power facilities. An Oregon Public Broadcasting investigation found that Amazon, which has a dozen large data centers in eastern Oregon, is turning to car-sized diesel generators for backup amid an unstable power grid.
Commissioners Tuesday divulged into a broader discussion around community reaction to data centers.
“I think the whole data center and the buzz has gotten the cart before the horse a little bit,” said Commissioner David Loveall, pointing to a state report that he said showed 70% of unfavorable comments submitted were copy-and-pasted letters.
“If there’s just a small minority that are causing most of the emotional discussion that we’re having, and good economic sense is not coming to the table ahead of the emotion, that’s just kind of my concern,” Loveall said.
Commissioner Laurie Trieger said the policy is about “being responsive to the moment in time.” She believes a policy would support transparent conversation and protect staff by providing parameters on how to engage with NDAs.
Trieger also added, “I notice my colleague at the end of the day frequently talks about emotional decision-making, and I’m not really sure what that means.”
“I notice anecdotally that he tends to raise it most often when a point is being made or an assignment request is coming up at the behest of either Commissioner Buch or myself, and so I just felt I needed to flag and make a comment about that because it’s distressing,” she said. “I think good emotional intelligence is what informs some of the best policy there is.”
Loveall later apologized.
“Emotional, perhaps that’s a bad word,” he said, adding that he didn’t mean “anything personal to my colleagues. I just meant that I need people to come to the table, and as a community, I think that benefits us all if we do that.”
County staff will return to the board to present the drafted policy, which will include a sunset date tied to the 2027 Oregon legislative session. This allows the county to reevaluate the rule once potential state statutory frameworks or executive rules are established.
Last week, Gov. Tina Kotek directed environmental regulators to temporarily stop issuing pollution permits to data centers, pausing most data center development until next summer.
