A federal administrative judge has paused construction of a proposed data center on public land near Boulder City while an expedited appeal tests whether the Bureau of Land Management relied on an inadequate environmental review.
The September 1 Interior Board of Land Appeals order blocks BLM’s amended right-of-way for Townsite Solar 2 LLC. The board consolidated challenges from Boulder City and environmental groups and ordered an accelerated briefing schedule. The stay does not permanently reject the project; it preserves the site while the board decides the underlying appeals.
The central dispute is whether a review prepared for one kind of development could support another. BLM approved a right-of-way in 2023 for a solar photovoltaic plant and battery system on 80 acres about five miles southwest of downtown Boulder City. Townsite later sought permission to build a data center with computer equipment and a battery system twice the size of the solar proposal’s. Instead of preparing a new or revised environmental assessment, BLM concluded the data center was substantially similar to the solar project.
The appeals board found the challengers likely to prevail on their argument that the projects are not substantially the same and that the earlier analysis may be insufficient. It also found likely irreparable harm to environmental-group members’ recreational and aesthetic interests, outweighing the developer’s temporary financial harm. The order emphasizes that this is a preliminary judgment for deciding whether work should stop, not a final ruling on the project’s legality.
Boulder City says it appealed because the federal parcel would depend on local utilities and emergency services, while the city contends BLM did not adequately consult local officials or provide sufficient public input. The City Council voted unanimously in July to challenge the approval. Because the board granted the environmental groups’ stay request, it did not separately decide the city’s request for the same temporary relief.
Nevada Current reported that BLM was ordered to respond by September 21 and that the proposal was the first data center approved on BLM land. That makes the appeal consequential beyond one site: Nevada has extensive federal land, and the board’s eventual reasoning could shape how agencies review proposals that substitute data centers for previously analyzed energy projects.
The dispute is separate from Boulder City’s November ballot question on data centers. The city’s official Question 1 digest asks whether data centers should become an approved use in portions of the city-owned Eldorado Valley Transfer Area outside a conservation easement. It explicitly says land outside that transfer area is unaffected. The stayed Townsite proposal concerns federally managed land and will be resolved through the BLM appeal process, not by the local ballot result.
For now, construction cannot proceed. The next concrete step is the federal response due September 21, followed by expedited consideration of whether BLM must conduct additional environmental analysis before the right-of-way can move forward.
