São Paulo city Limeira rejects bill to permit mega datacenter

The city council of Limeira, in Brazil’s São Paulo state, rejected a bill presented by the local mayor that would allow the installation of a datacenter campus, according to local press reports.

The bill was necessary to convert the land-use designation where the datacenter would be built from rural to urban. Brazilian federal law does not allow the sale of rural land to multinationals.

Mayor Mario Botion went to the city council this week to ask for the bill to be approved urgently. Botion had previously received representatives from the company heading the project, whose end-client, for contractual reasons, had to be kept confidential.

Councilors, however, voted 12-8 against the bill, citing lack of transparency and arguing that changing the city's zoning without knowing why or for whom would be an inappropriate "blank check."

The mayor said the project would bring important development for the city. According to local paper Todo Dia, the datacenter would involve 350,000m2 of floorspace to be built in two and a half years, employing up to 1,000 people during construction.

There are no large datacenters in Limeira currently. In June, Cirion announced the opening of a point of presence (PoP) in the city for its network.

“When they came to us, they already had all the processes advanced. The pre-contract and purchase and sale has already been signed, all with deadlines, hence our urgent need to approve and discuss this project and, eventually, approve this bill,” Botion was quoted as saying prior to the vote.

Botion said the company in question carried out all the reports, research into the region's water sources, topographic survey, and energy availability studies before opting for the city.

Despite the rejection, a new vote on the issue is expected after the recess in August.

“Limeira competed with 40 municipalities in the state of São Paulo for the arrival of this large company. They carried out an assessment of the connectivity that exists in the region in terms of fiber optics because it is a company that is going to set up a datacenter and needs this availability,” Botion told councilors.

Local outlet E-Limeira previously said, without providing details, that the center would be the largest of its kind in Latin America. The end customer in question has other units in Brazil, some close to Limeira, the report said.

The land is on the city's border with Santa Bárbara D'Oeste, close to the Piracicaba river and the Funil bridge.

BNamericas found that near the site there is a power substation built by Isa Cteep and another by Companhia Energética de São Paulo (Cesp).

We also uncovered details of a meeting held May 29 with the Limeira municipal planning council in which the project was to be discussed.

The attendance list includes representatives from real estate consultancy SafPlay, headquartered in Limeira’s neighboring city Piracicaba, and construction company BYD.