Prineville’s new data center will be small and secluded, and will essentially run itself.

A land use application filed recently by Apple details the company’s plans to build a 10,000-square-foot modular data center on a small piece of the 160-acre parcel it bought from the city for $5.6 million last month.

Rising just 13 feet off the ground in the northwest quadrant of the property, the building won’t require employees, plumbing or parking space. It will rely mainly on electricity for its cooling operations.

The data center will “operate independently of any staff requirements with only routine maintenance required,” the application states. It will contain “a 6,000-square-foot concrete pad holding 8 electric HVAC units.”

Apple’s center will be accessible at one point off Baldwin Road. A berm and security fence will largely shield the building from view.

City officials anticipate that the facility won’t be the only one on the property.

“They didn’t build it in the middle” of the property, said city planner Josh Smith. “Our assumption is there is going to be other facilities.”

The city gave Apple’s application preliminary approval Monday and is now conducting a 12-day appeal period. If, as Smith expects, there are no appeals, the approval will become permanent.

He said data centers like the one Apple has proposed are usually for nonpermanent storage.

“It is my understanding that this initial facility does not have backup generators, so it is designed to hold information that can be offline for a while or is duplicated elsewhere,” Smith said.

The application does call for a 2-inch water meter that will serve the site, but Smith said that would be largely for fire protection.

The minimal water usage contrasts with Facebook’s facility in Prineville, which currently uses about 26,000 gallons per day for its cooling operations.

“Each company does their own thing, and they are constantly evolving their technology,” Smith said. “It’s completely different from Facebook in that it’s electric only and has no backup.”

Apple has one year to complete construction after the application is approved, but the building contractor, Fortis Construction of Portland, will most likely start much sooner, Smith said.