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Data centers in Ada County, Idaho: 2 projects mapped
Southern Ada County's data center story runs through Kuna, a small city on farmland south of Boise. Two large campuses have been approved there on former farms. Meta's came first. The Idaho Statesman reported that the company switched on its $1.2 billion, 750,000-square-foot Kuna data center in September 2026, its first in Idaho. The second is Diode Ventures' Gemstone Technology Park, a 620-acre campus near Locust Grove and Barker roads. It passed the Kuna City Council 3-2 in April 2025, with Mayor Joe Stear breaking the tie. Council President Chris Bruce was the loudest no. "We did build an industrial section for stuff like this, if you look at where Meta is at, that's why we put everything out there," he said. "I have no idea why we would even think about putting it right there." Stear answered: "My biggest concern is if not this, what?" He said he did not favor the idea of apartments on the property instead.
The Gemstone deal promised $12 million to Kuna Police and $32 million to the Kuna Rural Fire District, but only $500,000 to the Kuna School District. School trustee Hillary Lowe told the council: "our assistant superintendent showed them actually close to $20 million in needs from the school and we were offered $500,000." Neighbors then went to court. In August 2025, farmer Layne Thornton and two entities behind Toledo Dairy petitioned for judicial review of the approval. Council member Greg McPherson had voted while employed by Thornton, whose land borders the site for more than a mile, and they argued he should have recused himself. The city replied that Thornton had shown no direct economic interest that could be imputed to his employee. By April 2026 BoiseDev reported the project on hold because of the lawsuit.
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Water is the local worry, and the city's answer is that the farms used more. Meta's property carries water rights for nearly 3.7 million gallons a day. The company signed over roughly 2.5 million gallons a day of those rights to the city, and the project is expected to peak at just under 2 million gallons a day in July and August. The Diode property's three water rights total 1.63 million gallons a day, and a transfer from irrigation to industrial use was pending. Kuna Public Works Director Adam Wenger said the data centers would use considerably less than farming. "Given that, do I consider groundwater an unlimited resource? No. There would be water issues here in some number of years, regardless of what that use is. Are we expediting that by pivoting that land to a data center? I don't think so, but it's to be determined." He said southern Ada County is probably "at a saturation point." Boise State engineering professor Sondra Miller was less sanguine: "If you're taking that water to cool data centers, what are you taking away from everything else?"
The biggest proposal now sits on federal land. In September 2026 the Bureau of Land Management confirmed that Rhea Data, a subsidiary of Las Vegas-based Arevia Power, had applied to build a 4-million-square-foot data center complex near Blacks Creek Reservoir on Kuna-Mora Road. The site would cover some 3,750 acres, a 3,200-acre campus plus 550 acres of transmission, and would include a natural gas power plant. The BLM said it first received the application in August 2025 and is still asking how the plant would be cooled and how much water it would need. Idaho Power said the project is "still preliminary" and not in its load forecast. Lisa Young of the Sierra Club's Idaho Chapter called it "unacceptable": "An additional data center with its own gas plant would wreck our local air quality and climate." BLM field manager Jarod Blades said he plans to publish a notice of intent, which opens public comment, before the end of 2026. "This is an application the BLM is required by law to evaluate, it's not a BLM proposal," he said.
Data center projects on record in Ada County
Grouped by the town each site sits in. The report above may name projects that have no record here yet.
Kuna2
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta KunaKuna | Meta | 152 MW | ||
| Diode Ventures Gemstone Technology Park (Kuna)Kuna | Diode Ventures | Proposed | Not reported |
Where this comes from
The reporting above was written from these. Open one and check it yourself.
Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.