Data centres will still have a future within Perth’s biggest local government area as councillors knock back a plan to ban them from being built to preserve residential amenity.

The motion, put forward by City of Stirling councillor Suzanne Migdale on Tuesday night would have seen the council look into amending a local planning policy to reclassify data centres as being a prohibited use.

If approved, it would have made Stirling – Perth’s most populous council – the first local government in the country to take a hard stance against the data centre boom.

But the majority of Migdale’s fellow councillors didn’t support the idea, with one fearing the ban could stop the “cure for cancer” being found within the city.

“Let me begin by making one thing clear: I’m not opposed to technology. I’m not opposed to artificial intelligence, and I’m not opposed to the use of data,” Migdale said at the meeting.

“I recognise that as our population grows and as more people and businesses use digital services, the demand for data storage and processing will also grow. Of course, it makes sense. More functionality requires more data, and more data requires data centres.

“But the question before us is not where the data centres are needed. We know they’re needed. The question is where should they be located.”

The battle of NIMBY versus YIMBY was a hot topic of the night, with Migdale insisting she was not against data centres being built as a whole.

“I’m not a tech NIMBY, in this instance, I would describe myself as a YIMBY. Yes, I support the tech, and yes, I accept that data centres will be required. But I believe they should be located in places that are properly planned and equipped to manage their significant demands,” she said.

“Ideally, in suitable regional or industrial areas, rather than within established metropolitan communities such as Stirling.”

Alternatively, councillor Michael Dudek – who voted against the motion – said he wouldn’t want one in his backyard.

“Data centres are a growing asset. We’re probably going to need to put a lot around Perth in the future. Ironically and funny enough, I’m happy to claim to be a nimby on this issue. If it was going in my backyard, I’d probably have a major issue,” he said.

“But there’ll be a need for these data centres, and if our residents utilise a large enough amount of network capacity to justify one, it would make sense to have one within our Geographical boundaries, but I’m just obviously still concerned about where they might go.”

Stirling is a sprawling local government area that is largely residential, however it does include the industrial and business precinct of Osborne Park, which is home to the headquarters of WA iron ore miner Mineral Resources.

Currently, data centres do not have a defined definition or zoning under the city’s local planning policy and are commonly defined as a warehouse.

They are permitted uses in the city’s more industrial areas, such as service, commercial, light industry, and general industry land uses zones.

Migdale’s notice of motion would have seen the council request its chief executive to prepare a report for council’s consideration on altering the planning policy before an official vote would be made.

Councillor Joe Ferrante said he didn’t think it was fair the city should have to miss out on potential revenue from data centres.

“Data harvesting is inevitable, and the advent of AI, just returning from an AI conference recently, means that our data needs to be stored here in Australia, and where we protect our ratepayers’ information. If we don’t store it in this country, then it will be stored in some other country,” he said.

“West Australia is perfectly placed for our Asian partners who need more compute power. Hyperscalers need more compute power. If we don’t plan for AI, which is a historic part of our lives, then the advent of the next cure for cancer may never be found, and certainly not in the City of Stirling.”

Councillor Tony Krsticevic said the city already has at least four smaller data centres within its boundaries which have received no complaints from locals.

“I know people are talking about these hyperscale AI campuses, which aren’t going to be happening in the City of Stirling, but I’d be surprised how many people actually knew we already have these data centres in the city of Stirling, and there’s multiple ones,” he said.

“Of course, you wouldn’t know because there’s been no problems, there’s been no issues. They’re very quiet in terms of water and power and again, no issues with these ones.”

He said in order to build the larger scale data centres people are “scared of” it would require demolishing half of Osborne Park – something he believes the city would never do.

After 45 minutes of debate over the notice of motion, it was ultimately lost 8-4 with only councillors Daniela Ion, Suzanne Migdale, Teresa Olow and Lisa Thornton voting to support it.