The City Council unanimously approved sweeping updates to the city's zoning code May 26, including regulations designed to make it virtually impossible to build battery energy storage systems or data centers within city limits - without ever explicitly banning them.

The strategy, explained publicly by Councilmember Jeff Harris during the meeting, reflects a careful legal calculation: an outright ban could expose the city to property rights litigation, while overlapping development requirements accomplish the same goal on firmer legal ground.

"So we don't want them but we have to be proactive in the way that we say we don't want them," Harris said.