West Richland updates codes to allow data centers

A change to what West Richland will allow to be built in some parts of the city could signal that developers are eyeing the community for a future data center.

The West Richland City Council voted Feb. 18 to change the city’s municipal codes to allow data centers to be built in areas zoned as urban transition and light industrial. That vote came on the heels of the city’s planning commission recommending the change.

Planning commission documents indicate that Frank Tiegs LLC, a subsidiary of one of the largest agricultural producers and landowners in the Tri-Cities area, requested the zoning changes. The request did not come with an identified project but would allow the city to review and potentially approve such projects.

“Data centers bring daytime jobs, are a significant source of utility and sales tax revenue, and would have the potential of bringing overall taxes down for residents,” Eric Mendenhall, West Richland’s community and economic development director, wrote in a memo to the planning commission.

Mendenhall declined any further comment on the request for the changes to zoning or Frank Tiegs LLC’s involvement.

Frank Tiegs LLC is part of Washington Potato Company, which was established by the late Frank Tiegs, who died in 2024, and was succeeded by his son, Keith Tiegs. Collectively, the Tiegs family owns food processing plants in the Tri-Cities and across the Pacific Northwest, farm tens of thousands of acres and employ thousands through an amalgamation of multiple companies.

Frank Tiegs LLC and Aho Construction already have plans to transform West Richland through the future development of The Heights at Red Mountain Ranch. The 10-phase project is estimated to add hundreds of homes and up to 1,600 residents to the city by the time it’s completed.

But among Frank Tiegs LLC’s property holdings in West Richland are several parcels that fall under the light industrial and urban transition zoning.

Tech companies continue to scope areas like the Mid-Columbia to build data centers, especially as the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, grows. Such facilities require large amounts of energy and the Mid-Columbia's hydroelectric and other power-generating facilities make the region attractive. However, energy leaders have said much more power generation, transmission and storage capacity is needed to meet projected demand.

Amazon Web Services maintains multiple data center campuses in Boardman, Hermiston and Umatilla. A yet-unidentified American company has begun discussions with the Port of Walla Walla to potentially buy 500 acres of port land near Wallula to establish a data center campus that could create hundreds of jobs and inject $5 billion into the region’s economy.

Gov. Bob Ferguson recently issued an executive order forming a work group on data centers.

Calling data centers critical infrastructure that the state needs to attract, Ferguson directed the state’s Department of Revenue to form and take the lead of a new work group to evaluate the impacts of data centers on the state, from job creation and tax revenue to energy and environmental impacts.

The governor wants the work group’s findings and recommendations in December.