Caldwell, ID Data Centers & Crypto Mining: Data Center Zoning & Siting (2026)

Section 10-12-03-23 of the Caldwell City Code, adopted by Ordinance 3670 on April 21, 2025, is the specific-use standard for Industry - Information / Data Centers within Chapter 10's zoning framework. The section requires adverse effects to be mitigated through setbacks, buffers, sound attenuation, or hours of operation rather than left unaddressed. Three categories of impact are named directly: noise, odor, or vibration detectable by human senses without instruments; radioactivity and electric or electromagnetic disturbances that unduly interfere with equipment or appliances on abutting properties; and any other emission or radiation that endangers human health or damages vegetation, property, or exceeds health and safety standards.

If the Director determines an applicant cannot adequately address these impacts through the standard site design tools, the data center use is bumped out of by-right approval and made subject to a Special Use Permit, which brings public hearing review before it can proceed. S. S. Department of Agriculture, the Southwest District Health Department, and the Idaho Department of Water Resources as the specific agencies whose requirements the application materials must address. That agency list signals the kind of large-scale industrial impacts, water use, emissions, and waste handling, the code anticipates from data center facilities, and ties the local zoning review directly to those outside regulators' standards rather than setting independent numeric limits of its own for water or power consumption.