The Ascension Parish Planning Commission is scheduled to consider a draft ordinance addressing zoning rules for data centers at its meeting on Aug. 12, 2026, according to the published agenda posted on the parish’s CivicClerk portal.
The proposed ordinance would create a new zoning classification called “High Impact Data Facilities” (HIDFs), according to the agenda document. Under the draft language, this classification would require additional review and regulation for a broad range of computing facilities, according to the published agenda.
The matter is relevant to Ascension Parish residents because it concerns how large-scale computing infrastructure — including facilities tied to artificial intelligence and cloud computing — would be sited and reviewed within the parish going forward, according to the agenda text.
- Meeting date: Aug. 12, 2026
- Body: Ascension Parish Planning Commission
- Agenda item: Draft ordinance establishing “High Impact Data Facilities” (HIDF) classification
- Per the agenda, HIDFs “include, but are not limited to, enterprise data centers, colocation data centers, cloud-computing facilities, artificial-intelligence computing facilities, high-performance-computing facilities, edge computing” facilities
- The agenda states such facilities would require “additional review and regulation under this Section”
According to the published agenda, the Planning Commission is scheduled to take up the ordinance at the Aug. 12 meeting. The agenda does not specify further procedural steps beyond the commission’s consideration of the item at that session.
Residents seeking more information can review the full agenda document through the parish’s CivicClerk portal. Members of the public may attend the Aug. 12, 2026 Planning Commission meeting to observe or participate, consistent with the parish’s standard public meeting procedures as reflected in the posted agenda.
Official source: the published record