Avista has put the brakes on a planned 500-megawatt data center development in Spokane after local residents pushed back hard against the proposal. The utility company confirmed the project is on hold while it weighs growing concerns from the community.
What was proposed
Avista had been eyeing a massive data center campus in the Spokane area, a facility that would have required a huge chunk of the regional power grid. At 500MW, the project could have rivaled some of the largest data centers in the Northwest. The company saw it as a way to meet surging demand from cloud computing and AI workloads.
But neighbors and local groups weren’t sold. They worried the center would strain the local power supply, drive up electricity rates for homes and small businesses, and consume huge amounts of water for cooling. Some also raised concerns about noise and the visual impact of a sprawling industrial site in a semi-rural corner of the county.
The community's response
Opposition mounted quickly. Residents showed up at public meetings, wrote to city and county officials, and organized online to voice their objections. The backlash caught Avista’s attention. Rather than push ahead amid the tension, the company decided to pause the project and reassess.
Avista didn't offer a timeline for when—or if—the project might resume. That uncertainty leaves Spokane County in an odd spot: the promise of new tax revenue and construction jobs now up in the air, but also relief for those who felt the project was moving too fast with too little public input.
What the pause means
For now, no work is happening on the site. Avista says it will take time to listen to community feedback and evaluate next steps. That could mean scaling back the project, moving it to a different location, or even scrapping it entirely. The company hasn't tipped its hand.
The pause also sends a signal to the broader data center industry. Utilities across the country are racing to accommodate hyperscale facilities, but Spokane shows what happens when a community pushes back. Developers may need to invest more in early outreach or risk seeing their plans stalled.
What happens next
Avista plans to hold additional public meetings in the coming months. No dates have been set. County commissioners said they'll watch the process closely. For residents who led the opposition, the fight isn't over—they want to make sure the pause becomes a permanent stop unless the company addresses every one of their concerns.
