Data Center Moratoriums

The week of October 5-12, 2026 was dominated by county and municipal action, with three of the most consequential votes coming from very different corners of the country. Anne Arundel County, Maryland voted 7-0 on October 5 to halt new data centers through January 31, 2028 — softening an earlier outright-ban proposal into a long moratorium tied to adoption of comprehensive legislation, and extending Maryland's position as one of the most locally restricted states. Oakland became the largest California city yet to pause development, enacting a 45-day emergency moratorium unanimously on October 6, the same day Mendocino County extended its urgency ordinance through August 2028 (with an exemption for facilities under 3 MW) and Imperial County's supervisors unanimously reinstated a temporary emergency moratorium after a Superior Court struck down their earlier pause for insufficient findings — a reminder that California's urgency-ordinance mechanism is now being tested in court. Tribal governments continued to emerge as a distinct front: citizens of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes voted 261-83 at their annual Tribal Council meeting to impose a three-year moratorium on data center construction on tribal lands through October 2029, following the Cherokee Nation's August ban and the Seminole Nation's earlier moratorium. In Tennessee, Memphis's closely watched 12-month moratorium ordinance was postponed 7-5 to October 20 after protests disrupted the council meeting, while Morristown advanced its first data center zoning rules. New England saw Old Town, Maine enact a six-month industrial-zone moratorium retroactive to September 8. At the state level, Pennsylvania's legislature is converting last year's disclosure debate into structural bills: House committees unanimously advanced HB 2775 (grid interconnection and fees before local zoning), HB 2828 (data centers bear generation and grid-upgrade costs) and HB 2674 (barring data centers from claiming public utility status), even as Governor Shapiro and legislative leaders rejected calls for a statewide moratorium ahead of the November election. New Jersey's transparency push advanced too, with a Senate committee moving S4304 — which would void NDAs that conceal data center development plans — on a 4-1 vote on October 8. The trend to watch is the maturation of local responses from blanket pauses into detailed zoning codes: Hillsboro, Oregon advanced permanent restrictions that would shrink land eligible for primary-use data centers from roughly 6,600 acres to 608; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania gave initial approval to its first data center rules with a 1,000-foot residential buffer; and Allen Township, Ohio adopted some of the strictest small-jurisdiction standards yet (air cooling only, 10 MW load cap, 40-decibel limit). A counter-current is also visible — Luzerne County, Pennsylvania is weighing a revised amendment that loosens setbacks and noise limits — and a wave of final votes scheduled for October 20 (Memphis, Hillsboro, Bethlehem, Volusia County) will show whether this month's proposals harden into law.