Data centers in Tooele County, Utah: 1 project mapped

Emails obtained by the residents' group TooeleCARES show developer Chuck Akerlow of Zenith Development pressing county officials behind the scenes on the Tooele Valley project. In September 2025 he wrote that he had committed to bring a 24-inch high-pressure gas line able to produce 140 megawatts, that he was under nondisclosure agreements with "companies you will recognize," and that he had a letter of intent with a nuclear power company.

In July 2026 he complained that the county's draft data center ordinance discriminated against technology companies, and he floated annexing into Grantsville. Akerlow and a Zenith partner sit on the Interstate Technology Park Public Infrastructure District that could finance infrastructure for the project, and Akerlow has said the project needs port authority financing to work.

Residents organized. At an Aug. 12 hearing the county planning commission heard opposition to a new data center ordinance and to plats for a truck stop and fast-food outlet in the project area, and tabled both, the plats pending a third-party traffic study. In September TooeleCARES delivered a letter signed by more than 1,100 people asking the port authority not to finance the district. "We all live by the same dying (Great Salt) Lake, and our wells are already struggling," resident Amy Lawson told the board.

Hart promised nothing would come to his board without "a very clear green light" from the community: "Tooele Valley (and) Tooele County are signaling they are not OK with it." The county has paused data center applications until its ordinance goes to the planning commission, expected in October, and the County Council, expected in November. Under the state's new HB507, from May 2027 local incentives for large-load data centers will require a state-overseen regionally significant development zone.