Developer eyes ‘GoldMine’ data center project in Fairfield, near Eagle Mountain’s Meta campus

In the small Utah town of Fairfield with a population of roughly 180 people — near the border of Eagle Mountain, where some 65,000 people live — a developer wants to build a project named “GoldMine,” which could include hundreds of acres for another data center in the Cedar Valley. 

The “mixed-use industrial and technology development” to the west of Utah Lake has so far been envisioned to include 140 acres for “ranchette” rural homes on one- to three-acre lots, and about 80 acres of commercial lots. But the lion’s share of the project (933 acres) would be devoted to a “business park” and industrial development — which would include “technological campuses” and “data centers.” 

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That’s according to Fairfield Planning Commission public documents, which include a preliminary draft plan created by the project’s development firms, EGI Real Estate and DAI Utah. 

Fairfield Mayor Hollie McKinney said the project is “still in the early, preliminary planning stages,” so it’s possible that the vision for GoldMine could change as it goes through the planning process. 

“Fairfield has not received a development application for this project, so the town has no plans to evaluate or permit at this point,” McKinney told Utah News Dispatch in an email this week in response to a request for an interview. 

McKinney also said “the developers have been good to work with and have included Fairfield’s residents, rural character, and water use in our preliminary discussions,” while adding that as “plans become more concrete, I’ll be in a better position to comment on the project and its potential impacts.”

The proposal hasn’t yet received a vote from the Fairfield Planning Commission, nor the Fairfield City Council. While being briefed on the project during a July meeting by EGI principal Jared Westhoff, the town’s planning commissioners expressed some concerns about the project and raised questions about water use and water rights.  

But they also said they liked the direction it was headed, particularly to build out a portion of the area with rural residential homes on large lots that allow animals — to avoid the land eventually being filled with high-density housing instead. 

But to Deeda Seed, a senior campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity who has been tracking a growing number of data center proposals throughout Utah, the “GoldMine” proposal is concerning for multiple reasons — but especially because it’s located in the Cedar Valley, where water is already scarce and emissions are increasing due to a growing number of projects.

“This is just crazy,” Seed said. “The fact that this thing is called GoldMine kind of sums it up. You know, these developers are digging for gold in the form of data center development. And the harm to everyone else is really significant and is totally not worth it.” 

Seed worries small-town Fairfield won’t have the resources — from permitting staff to firefighting resources — to properly manage and mitigate impacts of the proposed GoldMine project. 

Seed also questions whether enough people in Fairfield — and its larger northern neighbor, Eagle Mountain — are aware that it’s being considered, and if they’ll have the opportunity to weigh in before it’s too late. 

“This one is totally flying under the radar,” Seed said, adding, “Look at what happened to Mona.” 

Mona is a small rural city in Juab County, where residents learned a 3-million-square-foot data center was coming near their community months after it had already been approved by county leaders. One Mona resident first heard about the project only after a Williams Gas representative knocked on his door, asking for permission to run a gas line across his backyard, the Deseret News reported.  

Seed worries the GoldMine project could be a similar scenario for Eagle Mountain if word doesn’t get out sooner rather than later. 

“The developers love it, because they see it as a gold mine,” she said. “But for everybody else it’s a very, very big problem, and our elected officials need to get a handle on it right now. But also communities need to be aware — early on.” 

Concerns of another data center in Cedar Valley

The Cedar Valley — and Eagle Mountain in particular — is no stranger to data center development. Just roughly three miles east of the property being eyed for GoldMine, there’s already a sprawling data center campus owned by Meta, which was approved as a 2.4 million-square-foot Facebook data center by Eagle Mountain leaders in 2018. Now, Meta is expanding, planning for the data center to surpass 5 million square feet when it’s fully built out.

Seed said Meta’s data center and other projects in the airshed — including Enyo Energy’s power plant that’s been proposed in Fairfield near the Meta campus — are adding up, increasing emissions in the Cedar Valley to the point that she’s worried they’ll tip the area back into federal nonattainment status. 

“They’re apparently intent on building this gigantic polluting complex of hyperscale AI data centers in the Cedar Valley,” she said. “And I’m telling you, if I was in Eagle Mountain, I would be very worried and asking my elected officials what the heck is going on here.”

Seed argues the Cedar Valley could be on the brink of a “full-fledged disaster in terms of air quality. And this is in the Great Salt Lake Basin, totally the wrong place to be doing this under any circumstance.”

“This is ridiculous,” she said. “These (data centers) are going to change people’s lives forever, and change the landscape forever. You know, Eagle Mountain has the potential to become a great, sustainable community, but not if they go in this direction that they’re going in with all the data centers — but also not if their neighbors are pushing in this direction.” 

Water, public transparency will be priorities as project is reviewed, mayor says

When asked about Seed’s worries, McKinney, Fairfield’s mayor, told Utah News Dispatch in an email “I understand the concerns Deeda has raised about public awareness, water use, and emissions,” but she noted Fairfield hasn’t yet received a development application for the project, so the town isn’t positioned to evaluate or permit it at this time. 

“When an application is submitted, we will review its specific impacts and follow the applicable public process,” McKinney said. “Protecting Cedar Valley’s water resources and keeping residents informed will be priorities throughout that review.”

The GoldMine project also lies within the Utah Inland Port Authority’s Pony Express Project Area, which means it could eventually be eligible for subsidy through the port authority’s tax increment capture and bonding power. 

However, because the project hasn’t gone through Fairfield’s planning process, it’s far from any consideration by the Utah Inland Port Authority Board. 

“UIPA does not get ahead of the communities we partner with,” Ben Hart, the port authority’s executive director, said in a prepared statement Wednesday. “Local leaders determine what types of development are appropriate for their communities, and UIPA’s role is to support locally established priorities.” 

He also noted UIPA’s “position on data centers remains unchanged.”

“UIPA is aligned with the governor’s executive order and the principles outlined on our website, including respect for local land-use decisions and responsible planning for water and energy use,” Hart said. 

Eagle Mountain’s Meta data center has come with decades of tax incentives, totaling about $150 million over 40 years for the first phase of the project. Its 567-acre expansion also allows it to receive back about $780 million over 40 years, clawing back taxes that would otherwise be collected from Alpine School District, Utah County, Unified Fire Authority, Central Utah Water Conservancy District and Eagle Mountain. 

While the development has created jobs and boosted property tax revenue for the area, Eagle Mountain this year nearly doubled its property tax rate to capture about $2.1 million more to pay for more police, expand city staff and increase wages for city employees, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. That amount is nearly equal to the $2.5 million per year Eagle Mountain has forgone for Meta’s tax incentives. 

‘We take concerns regarding water and air quality seriously,’ developer says

Jared Westhoff, the EGI principal who has been discussing the project with the Fairfield Planning Commission, told commissioners in a July 16 meeting that one of his partners went to the East Coast to look at data centers “that were done right, and a couple that were done wrong.” He said the one that was done “wrong” was because of noise. 

“We’re going to be in this community for a long time, and we want to make sure that this project is something we can all be proud of as it’s built out,” Westoff said. “And so the last thing we would want is a data center going in that has some power generation with it and the noise is driving us all crazy.” 

Planning Commission Chair Wayne Taylor told Westhoff: “From being a little town (that) we are, this whole thing is concerning, right? But we understand that things are going to change, so we appreciate the thoughtfulness you’re putting into it.” 

Another commissioner, David Riet, said the rural town of Fairfield has “always resisted development, but we understand it’s coming.” But he also said “we would rather develop it nice like this so that it’s built out, so it’s not going to turn into a mess later with high density everywhere. If we build it out this way now, then it’s going to be nice forever.” 

“So as far as I’m concerned, I’m glad to see that it is being discussed and built out this way rather than the alternative, which eventually we’d just get run over by high density,” Riet said. “So I like the way this is going for that reason.” 

They also discussed water. Westhoff told planning commissioners that developers would want the GoldMine data center to function on a “closed loop system” that uses air cooling rather than water cooling. 

“We do not want the high water use that you see at Meta,” Westhoff said.  

But Seed told Utah News Dispatch a closed loop design “doesn’t solve the problem” with water because it would be powered by “a gas plant, and a gas plant needs water.” 

“So the water consumption is still a significant issue,” she said. “And when you put all of these hyperscale facilities next to each other in a valley (with already strained water resources), it is a recipe for disaster.” 

Westhoff, in response to a request for an interview, told Utah News Dispatch in an email Wednesday that the vision and design of the GoldMine project is going through an “ongoing planning process to obtain feedback and direction from Fairfield Town.” 

“The planning process remains ongoing, and the concepts and standards reflected in the draft are subject to continued review and refinement,” Westhoff said. 

In response to Utah News Dispatch’s questions — including whether the developer had secured water rights for the project and details about GoldMine’s expected emissions — Westhoff said in an email that the project’s specifics are still taking shape, so it depends on what ends up moving forward.

“We take concerns regarding water and air quality seriously and intend for the project to incorporate responsible, modern standards as planning moves forward,” Westhoff said.

He also said that “based on the type of development currently being contemplated, we expect the business park to have lower overall water demand than a comparable residential buildout, particularly where low-water and closed-loop systems are utilized.”

“With respect to emissions, any future user would be expected to comply with all applicable state and federal air-quality requirements and permitting standards and to incorporate appropriate emissions-control measures where applicable,” Westhoff said. “Actual emissions would depend on the specific use, equipment, energy source, and final facility design, so it would be premature to provide a meaningful emissions estimate at this stage.”

Westhoff added that “we appreciate the questions and will continue working with Fairfield to ensure the project is planned and developed responsibly.”

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