Where the data centers are going, and who is pushing back

Groton is Connecticut's entry on this map, which until now showed 22 facilities and no opposition at all. The town enacted its own moratorium on data center construction, and is grouped by the Rockefeller Institute with Peculiar, Missouri and Bangor, Maine among the communities that have successfully passed local moratoriums or bans. Worth noting how thin the sourcing is on small-town actions like this one compared with the coverage a Loudoun County or a Prince William gets -- a state reading as zero pushback on this map is often a reporting gap rather than a real absence, and Connecticut was one.

Moratorium enacted after a state-level override effort failed -- Maine communities acting locally once the statewide route closed. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Moratorium enacted following the failed state override effort. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Moratorium enacted following the failed state override effort. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Maine lawmakers passed LD 307, which would have been the first statewide pause on large data centers pending a study of grid and electricity-cost impacts. Governor Janet Mills vetoed it for lacking an exemption for a planned site in Jay, writing that she otherwise would have signed it.

One-year moratorium to study zoning and health impacts. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Holyoke enacted a ban on data centers in mid-2025, part of a cluster of municipal bans that summer.

New Jersey enacted the Data Center Fair Share Act (S731/A796) on July 7, 2026, following the four-part statewide framework Governor Mikie Sherrill unveiled in May. The law creates a separate ratepayer class so large data centers pay for the grid upgrades and energy their operations require, rather than shifting those costs onto residential and small-business customers, and pairs with energy and water reporting and community-benefit standards. Environmental groups had pressed for a stronger three-year moratorium on facilities over 20 megawatts.

Monroe Township banned data centers by ordinance on April 22, 2026 after months of packed, hours-long meetings over water quality, pollution, and noise. Developer Hexa Builders answered with a $300 million lawsuit -- now removed to federal court -- claiming the ban violates equal protection and even free speech, after the township denied its application for a 1-million-square-foot data center and warehouse. The case tests whether a town that says no can be litigated into yes, and its price tag is aimed at every other municipality weighing a ban.

On July 14, 2026, Governor Kathy Hochul issued an executive order making New York the first US state to impose a data-center moratorium -- a one-year pause barring the Department of Environmental Conservation from issuing permits or licenses for new large (hyperscale) data centers while regulators develop standards for their energy, water and environmental impacts. Hochul opted for the executive order rather than signing the Legislature's separate one-year moratorium bill (AB 10141 / SB 9144, passed June 4, 2026), which her office called complex and in need of further work. More than 30 hyperscale projects drawing an estimated 10,000 MW had been proposed across the state. Update, July 14, 2026: Hochul signed Executive Order 62 -- the nation's first statewide data-center moratorium -- pausing state environmental approvals for new data centers over 50 MW for up to a year while the Department of Public Service produces a generic environmental impact statement with public hearings. She acted by executive order rather than signing the legislature's broader bill, which she is expected to veto by year-end; the EO lets her own the issue on her own terms in an election year. Moratorium bills are now alive in Georgia, Maryland, Oklahoma, Vermont, and Virginia.

Albany's Common Council voted 12-0 on Jul 6, 2026 for a resolution backing a proposed statewide one-year data-center moratorium, with Councilmember John Williamson abstaining. The resolution bans nothing in Albany itself -- it was municipal pressure aimed at Governor Kathy Hochul, who had not acted on the Legislature's moratorium bill after it cleared both chambers. The No Kings Collective rallied outside City Hall beforehand; Bryan Paz-Hernandez said the point was to press the governor as well as support the resolution. Residents cited electricity rates, water use, noise and the thin job numbers. City officials said no data-center proposal had actually been submitted to the council -- only ideas -- and Councilmember Deborah Zamer said the discussion was driven partly by uncertainty about what might come. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT, and it is not quite what the campaign asked for: Hochul did not sign the bill. On Jul 14 she issued Executive Order 62 imposing a one-year pause on new hyperscale data centers instead, her office describing the legislation as complex and needing further work. The campaign got a statewide moratorium by executive order rather than by statute -- a real win, and a more fragile instrument than the one it was pushing for, since an order can be unwound without the Legislature. See pb-ny-state-moratorium-2026.

The Clay Town Board adopted Local Law No. 6 of 2026 on Jun 29, 2026, a one-year moratorium pausing zone changes and special permits for large-scale data centers, AI computing facilities, cryptocurrency mining and similar high-intensity computing uses, after a public hearing on Jun 15. No data-center project had been proposed in Clay -- the board acted before an application arrived, with Deputy Town Supervisor Joseph Bick saying the town did not want to be caught off guard and expecting proposals to keep coming. Officials were explicit that the pause is not a permanent prohibition: the town intends to write local regulations during the year and is working with the Onondaga County Executive's office on a study. The same meeting adopted a Battery Energy Storage System law creating Chapter 209 of the town code, which ended a separate six-month BESS moratorium -- the template the board says it will follow for data centers. Clay is the town where the Micron semiconductor plant is being built, so its industrial-load posture carries weight in Central New York. Neighbouring Lysander and Manlius took up their own pauses, and the state imposed a one-year hyperscale moratorium by executive order two weeks later.

After a nearly two-hour public hearing, the East Fishkill Town Board approved a three-year moratorium on data centers on June 25, 2026, barring permitting or consideration of any data center until July 1, 2029 pending federal and state studies of power and water use, noise and heat. It joined more than 100 active local moratoriums nationwide.

Hundreds of residents in the Town of Tonawanda spoke out against Riverview Innovation and Technology Campus, a 2 billion dollar, 500,000 square foot, 300 megawatt data center proposed for the former Tonawanda Coke site, citing pollution, utility costs, and noise.

The Lysander Town Board near Syracuse passed a six-month data center moratorium after more than 350 residents turned out against the proposed 300 megawatt Ranalli Lysander data center on a 120-acre campus.

After the Lansing zoning board ruled that TeraWulf's proposed Cayuga Data Campus, on the site of a former coal plant, was a permitted use, the groups CLEAN and FLX Strong filed an Article 78 lawsuit in January 2026 to annul the decision. They and Tompkins County officials are fighting a permit to draw more than a million gallons a day from Cayuga Lake, a drinking-water source, to cool the data center.

The Town of Perth in Fulton County passed a one-year data center moratorium, with the town supervisor citing energy use and a desire to maintain local control.

East Vincent Township officials unanimously rejected a 1.9-million-square-foot data center proposed for the historic Pennhurst State School site after months of resident campaigning. Backers cited reuse of a derelict property; opponents cited scale, traffic, and historic preservation.

Archbald Borough Council voted 5-0 to deny the Project Scott data-center campus in March 2026, following organized resident opposition in the northeastern Pennsylvania community.

Smithfield banned new data centers outright, one of the first US towns to do so.

Governor Phil Scott vetoed H.727, the Sustainable Data Center Deployment Act, on May 28, 2026. The bill, which cleared the Senate 26-3 and passed the House with near-unanimous support, would have created a regulatory framework for data centers of 20 megawatts or more -- PUC-reviewed utility contracts to shield other ratepayers from infrastructure costs, full Act 250 permitting, on-site renewable power, and community payments. The House override attempt failed 83-52 on the session's final day, so the veto stands.

Lake County moved to impose a temporary moratorium on data centers in unincorporated areas while it develops guidelines, amid intense opposition to the Grayslake T5 campus.

Both central Illinois communities adopted data center pauses in 2026.

Lockport postponed indefinitely any data-center proposals on May 28, 2026 after broad resident pushback over a possible center at the old Chevron property.

Champaign County voted on April 23, 2026 to establish a one-year moratorium on new data centers over 10,000 sq ft, citing 'mystery' proposals and concerns about the Mahomet Aquifer that supplies nearly a million residents.

More than 100 residents packed a Bourbonnais council meeting to oppose a possible data center; officials moved to require a special-use permit to retain control over any development on manufacturing-zoned land.

Pekin's mayor announced on March 9, 2026 that the city would not move forward with a proposed data center near Lutticken Lake, drawing applause -- though the city had already signed a $4.5 million purchase contract with the developer.

Brennan Investment Group withdrew a roughly $2 billion data-center proposal in Barrington Hills in January 2026 after a Change.org petition gathered over 1,300 signatures, canceling its plan-commission presentation.

Ogle County passed its own moratorium on data centers as the northern-Illinois buildout accelerated.

McLean County restricted data centers to manufacturing zones only -- blocking them from farmland -- and required developers to disclose water and energy use.

Yorkville residents, represented by a Plainfield firm also active in Joliet and Grayslake, sued to overturn the Project Cardinal approval after a marathon council meeting.

A group of unincorporated Will County residents sued to challenge the rezoning behind the approved 795-acre Joliet Technology Center.

A coalition of Lake County residents and property owners prepared a lawsuit seeking to vacate the village's approvals of the T5 @Chicago IV campus, arguing the process was deficient.

Aurora enacted a 180-day moratorium on data centers and warehouses in September 2025 and advanced some of the strictest data-center regulations in the country.

IT PASSED. The New Albany City Council approved a one-year data-center moratorium unanimously on final reading on Jul 16, 2026, blocking new data centers and multi-building campuses larger than 100,000 square feet while the city studies impacts on infrastructure, utilities, environmental resources and noise. Mayor Jeff Gahan proposed it on Jun 9 to let the city examine the issue before proposals arrive, and the Plan Commission recommended it after a public meeting. The reasoning was specific rather than symbolic: officials said New Albany has no room for a campus on the scale of the $800 million Meta facility under construction across the river in Jeffersonville, but that smaller facilities could still be proposed under existing zoning, and residents responding to a survey mailed with sewer bills asked for clearer rules first. The dissent-that-wasn't belongs in the record: council member Scott Blair voted for the moratorium while warning that prohibiting data-center development could inhibit growth for companies with an existing presence in the city. New Albany is among the first Southern Indiana cities to pause construction outright, in a state where Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute counted at least 17 counties with temporary moratoriums by mid-2026.

Delayed twice, not dead. Councilman Russ Jehl's proposal to create a Data Center & Community Quality of Life+ Task Force -- the centerpiece of his transparency package around Google's multibillion-dollar southeast Fort Wayne campus -- was first held 8-0 on Jun 16, 2026 after council members said they did not know how the group would operate, and again on Jul 14, pushing the vote to Sept 8. The politics of the first delay matter: Councilwoman Rohli Booker, who represents southeast Fort Wayne, had not been included in drafting the legislation and warned that claims of investment flowing to her district could later justify sending it fewer resources. By July she and Councilman Geoff Paddock were co-working the proposal, with open questions on committee size, appointment power, whether recommendations bind, and timeline. Booker's framing shifted to forward-looking protections on the theory that more data centers are coming. THE PROJECT UNDERNEATH: Google's full plan calls for 12 buildings phased across an 892-acre site east of Adams Center Road, land already zoned industrial, so zoning will not stop the buildout -- each building needs only individual permits. Hatchworks LLC, a Google subsidiary, has asked IDEM for 143 additional diesel generators; the comment period closed Nov 17 with more than a hundred residents opposing at hearing, and a decision is still pending. Fort Wayne has adopted no moratorium -- the task force IS the accountability instrument on offer, which is why its Sept 8 fate belongs on the calendar.

St. Joseph County's council voted down a $13 billion data-center campus near New Carlisle on July 21, 2026, ending a ten-hour meeting where residents lined up past midnight. The county already hosts an Amazon build; speakers argued the second campus's water and power demands were being priced onto them. One of the largest dollar-figure rejections recorded here.

A one-year moratorium about 40 miles from Chicago while the town weighs zoning and utility rules.

A one-year ban on data center development; several Indiana counties enacted similar suspensions.

Up to a one-year moratorium covering data centers, solar and battery storage together -- a combined-infrastructure pause rather than a data-center-specific one. Part of Indiana's county-level wave. Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute counted 11 counties with data-center ordinances and at least 17 with temporary moratoriums by mid-2026, against roughly 60 hyperscale facilities proposed statewide in two years, in a state whose 2019 legislation largely exempted data centers from sales tax. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

12-month moratorium passed unanimously after the Area Plan Commission recommended it 5-0. Part of Indiana's county-level wave. Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute counted 11 counties with data-center ordinances and at least 17 with temporary moratoriums by mid-2026, against roughly 60 hyperscale facilities proposed statewide in two years, in a state whose 2019 legislation largely exempted data centers from sales tax. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

A data center rezoning proposal in Kosciusko County failed unanimously, and nearby Leesburg refused to rezone 554 acres, part of a wave of rural Indiana rejections. Developers say the projects bring tax base; residents cite farmland, water, and bypassed public review on unincorporated land.

Huntington County commissioners imposed a data-center moratorium in February 2026 that remains in effect while the planning commission drafts a zoning approach. Many residents at public meetings opposed allowing data centers in the county at all; officials said no project had been formally proposed. SOURCING CAVEAT: this record currently rests on a single aggregator relay (strisker.com weekly data-center digest) and no local primary has been obtained. The underlying official agenda or vote record has not been read directly. Treat the specifics as unconfirmed until a local source is attached.

12-month moratorium on hyperscale data centers. Part of Indiana's county-level wave. Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute counted 11 counties with data-center ordinances and at least 17 with temporary moratoriums by mid-2026, against roughly 60 hyperscale facilities proposed statewide in two years, in a state whose 2019 legislation largely exempted data centers from sales tax. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

One-year moratorium covering wind, solar, data centers and small modular reactors together. Part of Indiana's county-level wave. Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute counted 11 counties with data-center ordinances and at least 17 with temporary moratoriums by mid-2026, against roughly 60 hyperscale facilities proposed statewide in two years, in a state whose 2019 legislation largely exempted data centers from sales tax. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Temporary moratorium on data center construction. Part of Indiana's county-level wave. Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute counted 11 counties with data-center ordinances and at least 17 with temporary moratoriums by mid-2026, against roughly 60 hyperscale facilities proposed statewide in two years, in a state whose 2019 legislation largely exempted data centers from sales tax. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Minutes before the Indianapolis City-County Council was set to vote, Google withdrew its rezoning request for a 468-acre data center after hundreds of residents packed the meeting in opposition and the proposal was expected to fail.

One-year moratorium that EXPIRED in February 2026. Recorded because an expired pause is not a permanent protection, and Marshall has been miscited elsewhere as an outright ban. Part of Indiana's county-level wave. Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute counted 11 counties with data-center ordinances and at least 17 with temporary moratoriums by mid-2026, against roughly 60 hyperscale facilities proposed statewide in two years, in a state whose 2019 legislation largely exempted data centers from sales tax. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Provident Realty's data center proposal in Burns Harbor drew sustained grassroots pushback at public hearings through 2024, leading the developer to withdraw its petition in October 2024 with no updated plan submitted since.

A county that had just written one of Iowa's strictest data-center ordinances paused itself anyway. On Jul 1, 2026, after nearly three hours of public comment in a standing-room meeting, the Linn County Board of Supervisors voted 2-1 for an 18-month moratorium on new applications to rezone unincorporated county land into the EU-3 Large-Scale Data Center district, effective immediately and running to roughly January 2028. Supervisor Brandy Z. Meisheid, who proposed it as a pause, said elected officials do not have enough information to make sound decisions and are being asked to decide faster than they can learn; Kirsten Running-Marquardt joined her, citing transparency. The county adopted its data-center ordinance only in February -- requiring water studies, a water-use agreement with tracking and reporting, an economic development agreement, setbacks, noise limits, traffic and emergency planning. THE DISSENT IS THE POINT AND IT BELONGS HERE: vice chair Sami Scheetz voted no, arguing the February ordinance already provided the guardrails and that pausing makes the Iowa jurisdiction with the strongest resident protections closed for business, pushing projects toward places with the weakest rules -- specifically the small cities inside Linn County, which the county cannot zone. That prediction has a live test case next door: Salix annexed nearly a thousand acres of farmland where MidAmerican Energy is exploring a data center. A developer at the meeting, Jim Condon, disputed the water concerns for closed-loop designs. The moratorium does not reach cities, because the board has no zoning jurisdiction there. At least eight Iowa counties now have data-center moratoriums.

The Council Bluffs City Council voted unanimously against a proposed one-year moratorium on new data centers. Mayor Jill Shudak had requested the pause so staff could rewrite the city's data-center zoning and weigh strain on water and sewer capacity, which officials said is already running high. Several council members worried a moratorium would signal the city was closed to business and preferred to keep handling projects case by case.

Woodbury County supervisors approved a one-year moratorium on data centers in unincorporated areas at a June 23, 2026 meeting, leaving existing and previously approved applications untouched. Leaders said they knew of no ongoing projects in those areas. SOURCING CAVEAT, NARROWED: that Woodbury County adopted a moratorium is corroborated -- Radio Iowa and KSCJ both list it among the Iowa counties that have done so. The Jun 23, 2026 adoption date asserted here is NOT confirmed: the nearest primary (WVIK, Jun 17) has supervisors only expecting to formally consider it on that date. Confirm the vote and date from county minutes before removing this caveat.

A local moratorium on new data centers pending zoning review.

Facing a third hyperscale proposal, Ida County moved to adopt extensive data-center zoning rules in early 2026 amid disputes over water use, after a nearby Cedar Rapids facility was fined for drilling unpermitted wells. Residents pressed for binding limits on groundwater and grid costs.

The Flint Hills Digital Campus -- 1,000 acres on the west edge of Emporia -- was announced June 2, 2026; the city commission annexed the land the next day, and all hell broke loose in a town of 25,000 that lost 1,200 manufacturing jobs in recent years. Civic leaders admitted they had worked with the developer for eight months but said NDAs barred naming it; a Kansas Reflector columnist reported the purported developer swore under oath he was not involved. More than 400 people packed a six-hour planning hearing where speakers turned their chairs when the project's representative approached the microphone. Emporia Neighbors United ran a boycott of pro-project businesses, then a petition drive: the first 1,400-signature petition was bounced on a filing technicality, the second was certified July 21 -- forcing the city to either enact a data-center prohibition ordinance or put it to voters. The commission took up rezoning July 22 at a meeting where one attendee was arrested. An unlikely coalition -- young and old, tree huggers and Bible thumpers, as the local columnist put it -- against a chamber of commerce promising jobs: the whole national fight, compressed into one Kansas town.

El Dorado's commission invalidated a citizen-led petition against data centers and asked a court to weigh in -- the second Kansas town in a month where the fight moved from the hearing room to petition law. Paired with Emporia's certified petition ninety minutes up the turnpike, Kansas is becoming the test of whether direct democracy can reach data-center decisions at all.

182-day moratorium passed 7-1, effective Jul 27, 2026 through Jan 25, 2027. The state capital pausing while the legislature will not is the contrast worth noting. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

They wanted a ban and the law would not let them have one. The Haring Township Board of Trustees voted unanimously on Jul 13, 2026 for a six-month moratorium on data-center construction, before a crowd that largely wanted more -- several residents and board members said outright prohibition was the goal. The township's legal consultants, Mika Meyers PLC, advised that Michigan's Zoning Enabling Act forbids exclusionary zoning: a use has to be permitted somewhere in the township, and court decisions have gone against total bans. So the board took what the law allows -- a pause -- and directed the planning commission to work with counsel on a permanent policy that makes data-center construction difficult without formally prohibiting it, to be enacted when the moratorium expires. Zoning administrator Michael Green named water usage and noise as the driving concerns, said a couple of developers have already expressed interest in the township, and called the technology too new to regulate blind. A resident cited the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council of Michigan finding that data-center economic benefits are modest and concentrated in the construction phase. Wexford County's seat-adjacent township joins a Michigan wave: at least 27 communities had active moratoria by late February and the count has grown since, while the statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) remain stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. The ceiling Haring hit -- pause yes, ban no -- is the same one every Michigan township on this map operates under.

The Grand Traverse County Planning Commission recommended a zoning change that would let the township board impose a data-center moratorium, after hundreds of residents packed a meeting in support. No project has been formally proposed; residents cited the region's Great Lakes freshwater and limited job benefits, and some urged an outright ban. SOURCING CAVEAT: this record currently rests on a single aggregator relay (strisker.com weekly data-center digest) and no local primary has been obtained. The underlying official agenda or vote record has not been read directly. Treat the specifics as unconfirmed until a local source is attached.

When an 822-acre data-center campus surfaced in Augusta Charter Township -- a farming community of 8,000 southeast of Ann Arbor -- with full township-board support, residents formed Protect Augusta Charter Township and collected more than 950 ballot-petition signatures, enough to force the rezoning onto the 2026 ballot. The fight has consumed local politics, with accusations of harassment on both sides, and follows neighboring Saline Township's rejection of a similar campus: southeast Michigan's townships are deciding these projects at the ballot box now, not the board table.

Wixom's city council unanimously voted down a developer's request to lift the Detroit suburb's six-month data-center moratorium early, keeping the pause (March through August 2026) in force while officials study the effects. A rare procedural moment on this map: not a fight to impose a moratorium, but a developer trying to end one -- and losing 7-0.

One-year moratorium passed 7-1 amid public outcry. Flint carries particular weight in any fight over industrial water and utility burdens. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Added to Michigan's tally of more than 20 local data center moratoriums in 2026.

In April 2026 the local utilities authority passed a yearlong halt on extending water and sewer service to data centers, blocking projects including one tied to the University of Michigan and Los Alamos.

12-month moratorium. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

One-year moratorium in one of Michigan's largest cities. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

180-day moratorium. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Four-month moratorium with an extension option -- among the shortest recorded, which means it has likely already lapsed or been renewed. Worth a status check. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Six-month moratorium. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

One-year moratorium. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Six-month moratorium. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

180-day moratorium. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Six-month moratorium. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

One-year moratorium adopted unanimously. The city cited a zoning code that did not yet define or regulate data centers and 2025 inquiries from Fortune 100 companies eyeing nearby large parcels. Saline flagged a second exposure worth tracking generally: projects proposed just OUTSIDE city limits that could seek annexation to reach city utilities. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

12-month moratorium. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

One-year moratorium. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Washington Township in Macomb County joined Michigan's roster of more than 20 local data center moratoriums amid resident concerns.

Residents in Lenox Township organized against a proposed data-center campus after a promotional website appeared online. Township officials initially denied any developer had applied, but public-records requests showed the supervisor and deputy supervisor had already been contacted. Residents packed meetings and filed a petition to recall four members of the board of trustees.

One-year moratorium. Green Charter is the township that recalled its board over a separate large-scale industrial project, so its posture carries local history. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

180-day moratorium. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Six-month moratorium. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Six-month moratorium. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

180-day moratorium. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

TWO-YEAR moratorium -- the longest in the Michigan wave and among the longest anywhere on this map. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

90-day moratorium, later extended. Part of Michigan's local moratorium wave -- the largest in the country, with at least 27 communities holding active pauses by early 2026 while statewide bills (HB 5594-5596, SB 1018-1020) stayed stalled under a governor who calls a moratorium a non-starter. Michigan townships cannot ban data centers outright: counsel across the state reads the Zoning Enabling Act to forbid exclusionary zoning, so a use must be permitted somewhere. A pause plus restrictive permanent zoning is the ceiling available to every jurisdiction on this list. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Saline Township's board voted 4 to 1 to reject rezoning for a 16 billion dollar OpenAI and Oracle Stargate data center, but the developer sued for exclusionary zoning, the township settled within weeks, and construction proceeded over near-unanimous local opposition.

A proposed data center in Fife Lake, Michigan was scrapped after local opposition.

It moved. After discussing a moratorium at a Jul 6, 2026 work session without voting, the North Mankato City Council voted UNANIMOUSLY to set a public hearing for Aug 3, 2026 on an ordinance authorising a study and imposing a one-year moratorium on data centers. The proposed ordinance defines a large-scale data center as a facility primarily used for storing, processing, managing or transmitting digital data that exceeds 250,000 square feet OR uses at least 50,000 gallons of water per day, and sweeps in supporting infrastructure -- offices, cooling systems, generators, water storage, utility substations -- while excluding small computing facilities incidental to another use. City Attorney Chris Kennedy told the council the pause is meant to give the city time to define what a data center even is and how it should be regulated, with the study to cover water consumption, electrical demand, noise, lighting and siting, review other Minnesota cities' ordinances, and track state and federal rules. Resident Benton Bakke pressed for a stricter definition with a smaller building footprint. Context worth carrying: North Mankato was one of five Minnesota cities the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy sued over data-center approvals, but MCEA dropped its case here after no project materialised -- so this is a city regulating in the absence of a proposal. Neighbouring Mankato passed its own one-year moratorium unanimously on Jul 13, and Blue Earth County is considering one.

Mankato's City Council voted unanimously on Jul 13, 2026 for a roughly one-year moratorium covering data centers AND high-impact utility consumers -- a category wider than data centers alone, which avoids the definitional fight over what counts as one. Staff will study localized impacts and how other communities regulate the facilities, and the council may act sooner if the work finishes early. Residents raised farming and agriculture, water, resources, health and climate. The demand that stands out: resident David Turner urged the council never to sign a non-disclosure agreement with any prospective data center, warning that NDAs move the whole process behind closed doors. That anti-NDA push is now a live legislative issue in Michigan and Minnesota both. A speaker for the industry side argued Minnesota data-center projects use local union labour and high-efficiency cooling. Neighbouring North Mankato and Blue Earth County were weighing their own pauses.

After Inver Grove Heights imposed a moratorium reaching a project already in its pipeline, the developer threatened a $150 million lawsuit, arguing the pause is retroactive as applied. Alongside Monroe Township's $300 million suit in New Jersey, the litigation playbook against towns that say no is now its own pattern on this map.

A COURT STOPPED THIS ONE, not a rulebook. The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy sued the City of Faribault and developer Archer Datacenters over the city's handling of a proposed data center, and the case reached the Minnesota Court of Appeals. In a June 2026 opinion the judges sided with MCEA, holding that the city needed to conduct a more rigorous environmental review. That ruling kicked the project back to the city, and the council responded by extending Archer's deadline to submit further information into 2027 -- so the practical effect is a pause of at least a year and a half, imposed judicially, without the city ever adopting a moratorium. Faribault does also plan to develop and consider data-center standards covering water use, electricity use and air emissions, which is where this record started, but the standards are the aftermath rather than the story. WHY IT MATTERS TO THE MAP: Faribault and Pine Island are the two Minnesota cases where opponents won in court on environmental-review grounds, and they establish a route that does not depend on persuading a council -- an inadequate review is reviewable. MCEA has brought parallel suits over Lakeville, Hermantown, North Mankato and Monticello.

THE CASE THAT COULD UNDO MEGAWATT THRESHOLDS EVERYWHERE. Developer Eagan Capital sued the City of Eagan over its moratorium on data centers drawing more than 9 megawatts, arguing the city overstepped because only the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission may regulate power. If that argument succeeds, it reaches far past Eagan: a megawatt trigger is the most common design in American data-center moratoriums, and this map records many -- Sunbury's 25 MW ballot cap, Santa Fe County's 1 MW threshold, Lakeland's 50 MW large-load rule, Baltimore's 10 MW pause, Seattle's 20 MVA definition. A ruling that power thresholds are preempted utility regulation would force every one of them onto different ground, most likely square footage or water use. Eagan is one of several Minnesota cities with moratoriums, alongside Inver Grove Heights, Rosemount and Minneapolis.

The city adopted a six-month pause on data centers larger than 350,000 square feet in May 2026 while it studies zoning and utility impacts.

In May 2026 a Goodhue County judge issued a temporary restraining order halting Project Skyway, a roughly 500-acre Google-backed data center near Pine Island, after the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy sued over a streamlined environmental review that did not account for the project's scale, which could draw as much as 2,700 megawatts. The pause was a breakthrough for a grassroots movement spreading across Minnesota.

Minnesota's two data center moratorium bills, HF 4888 and SF 4298, died when the Legislature adjourned in May 2026 without a hearing.

Data center moratorium, one of the Twin Cities suburbs acting alongside Eagan, Inver Grove Heights and Minneapolis. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Data center moratorium adopted, part of the Twin Cities cluster. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

TABLED, REVISED, PASSED. Joplin's council tabled its data-center ordinance 9-0 in early July, sending it back to Planning and Zoning for stronger pollution standards and utility-rate protections. On Aug 3, 2026, after nearly two hours of public comment, council adopted the revised rules UNANIMOUSLY. What passed: data centers confined to heavy-industrial zoning and requiring a special use permit rather than being allowed by right; a 45-decibel limit at property lines adjoining residential uses with pre-construction sound testing to document baselines; mandatory wastewater pretreatment and pollutant scans; state and federal emissions compliance; and Tier 4 backup generators. A tabling that produced a stricter ordinance a month later is the pattern worth naming -- the delay was the leverage.

120-day moratorium passed 8-0, halting new data center applications while the city builds a public-interest evaluation framework. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Data center moratorium adopted, in the same season Missouri landed two of the year's largest commitments -- a $15B Google campus and a separate $10B Amazon campus, both in Montgomery County. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Capstone Technology Campus LLC withdrew all rezoning and annexation requests for a proposed data center at 6321 Pickett Road on June 26, 2026 after organized opposition; residents are pressing the City Council for an 18-month moratorium to set safeguards before any future project.

After the Festus City Council approved a 6-billion-dollar CRG data center over public objection, voters removed four of the eight council members and a group filed suit seeking to reverse the rezoning. The developer and city point to investment and tax revenue; opponents cite a lack of public say over power, water, and noise.

After the City Council backed a 6 billion dollar data center, Festus voters removed several members in 2026, an early sign of electoral fallout from data center fights.

After a packed four-hour hearing where most speakers demanded an outright ban, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen voted 7 to 8 against a data center moratorium in February 2026, a narrow margin that signaled deep division.

In Pacific, Franklin County, a special planning-and-zoning meeting ended within minutes when developer Beltline Energy withdrew its rezoning request for a proposed $16 billion data center -- an auditorium packed with residents ready to speak against it never got the chance to. Withdrawal under pressure is its own category: the project pulled before the vote it would have lost.

Facing a $1.5 billion Diode Ventures proposal, residents of Peculiar organized as Don't Dump Data in Peculiar over visual impact, noise, and property values. In October 2024 the city amended its zoning ordinance to remove data centers entirely, blocking the project outright.

Seward County commissioners voted on the morning of June 30, 2026 to impose a one-year moratorium on data-center construction, set to lapse either on a vote to extend or as soon as the county finalises data-center regulations -- whichever comes first. Commission chair Misty Ahmic put the reasoning in terms worth quoting for how much of this map it describes: a moratorium is not a decision and is not saying no, it is saying the county needs to be sure that if business arrives, it is right for Seward County. Her stated fear was procedural rather than environmental -- that absent both a pause and a rulebook, a developer could muscle through a regulatory process that was never designed for projects this size. Seward became at least the tenth Nebraska county with a moratorium in force.

On June 16, 2026 residents filled the district courtroom in Beatrice and spilled into the room next door for a four-hour Gage County Planning Commission meeting on a data-center moratorium. When Janice Jacobsen of Adams asked the room how many supported it, close to every hand went up; her read was that these were people wanting assurances that safety would be addressed. The objections were water and electricity, and underneath them the question of who the projects are actually for -- Wanda Garrett of Beatrice put it as the people putting the data centers in not really caring about Gage County. The state senator backing Nebraska's data-center buildout responded to hearings like this one by saying her understanding is that most facilities use closed-loop water systems, which is the crux of the dispute rather than an answer to it.

By the end of June 2026 at least ten Nebraska counties had data-center moratoriums in place, with five more weighing them, according to Nebraska Public Media News -- a state-level pattern assembled entirely out of county votes, with no statewide ban. Two things make Nebraska distinct. First, it is the only state served entirely by public power: there are no investor-owned utilities, so every kilowatt a data center draws is bought from a utility owned by its own customers, and the ratepayer-subsidy argument that is abstract elsewhere is arithmetic here. That is the premise behind the legislative push to require that new generation and transmission built for data centers be billed to those data centers rather than to households -- as Sen. DeKay framed it, keeping ratepayers from having to build generation they will not use and will not benefit from, and putting the financial onus on the private entity. Sen. Rita Sanders argued the opposite side, that Nebraska needs the capacity because everything from hospitals to robotics needs more electricity, and said her understanding is that most data centers run closed-loop water systems. Second, the county officials involved are not framing this as opposition. Jon Cannon of the Nebraska Association of County Officials expects counties to conclude they need their regulations in order and to pause a range of development, not just data centers -- which is why so many of these lapse automatically once rules are finalised rather than on a further vote.

Residents put it on the ballot themselves -- the council only certified it. A citizen petition committee gathered more than 450 signatures against a requirement of roughly 172 and delivered them to Sunbury city offices on Jul 6, 2026; Mayor Joe St. John confirmed 351 were verified as city residents, and on Jul 15 the City Council unanimously certified the measure to the Nov 3, 2026 ballot. The role of the council there was ministerial, which is the point: this is direct democracy routing around the body that would otherwise decide. The charter amendment would cap data-center peak load at 25 megawatts, a threshold that excludes essentially every hyperscale facility being built in central Ohio -- new campuses commonly run 100 to 1,000 megawatts. The target is a proposed $2 billion Amazon Data Service campus in the city's new business and technology park, after months of dispute. WHY THE BALLOT AND NOT THE COUNCIL: Sunbury's existing data-center moratorium runs only through Jan 31, and residents concluded the Amazon project could simply be approved once the pause expired. Resident sponsor Trey Dockendorf, who lives less than a mile from the site, framed it as sending a message and as giving residents a say in the outcome. The measure's language is drawn from Conserve Ohio's proposed state constitutional amendment, which failed to gather the roughly 413,000 signatures needed for the Nov 2026 statewide ballot by the Jul 1 deadline and now targets the 2027 primary -- so the local charter route is what is actually live this year. Pataskala, in Licking County, is running a parallel charter campaign against a proposed 200-megawatt Aligned Data Centers facility. Ohio has roughly 224 data centers, 139 of them in central Ohio.

Two instruments, one city. Massillon City Council first passed a 180-day moratorium unanimously on Apr 6, 2026 -- no zoning, building or other permits for data centers during its life -- and hired attorney Terry Seeberger (up to $15,000) to draft zoning recommendations. The follow-on zoning ordinance was amended in July to restrict data centers to heavy-industrial districts and expand residential setbacks to 400 feet, then delayed for a work session Jul 13. FINAL ADOPTION OF THE ZONING ORDINANCE NOT YET CONFIRMED by a primary -- the moratorium is the verified instrument; confirm the ordinance vote from council minutes. Stark County split screen: Plain Township passed a 12-month moratorium in March, while Perry Township trustees approved a tax abatement for a planned data center Mar 24 over resident objections.

Citizen charter-amendment campaign running parallel to Sunbury's, targeting a proposed 200-megawatt Aligned Data Centers facility in Licking County. Same model: residents routing around the council to the ballot. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

A statewide initiative to bar data centers above 25 MW gathered more than 73,000 signatures. Organizers said it would not make the 2026 ballot but would continue. Industry groups warn such a cap would block large AI projects.

The Archbold village council is weighing a data center moratorium amid community concerns over power and water use.

On July 9, 2025, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio ordered AEP Ohio to create a data-center-specific tariff, adopting a settlement joined by commission staff and the Ohio Consumers' Counsel. The tariff, effective that month, allocates the cost of the new transmission infrastructure needed to serve fast-growing data-center load to those data centers rather than spreading it across residential, commercial, and industrial customers, and requires large facilities to make longer-term commitments and demonstrate financial backing.

Governor Larry Rhoden signed SB 135, the Data Center Bill of Rights for Citizens, on March 24, 2026 (alongside HB 1038), after statewide moratorium bills stalled. Applying to data centers with 10 megawatts or more of peak demand, the law requires developers to pay the electric-system costs their projects cause and to show their water use is compatible with local supply, and -- notably -- prohibits the state from limiting local governments' authority to regulate or ban data centers, keeping the moratorium option in local hands.

READ THIS AGAINST THE VIRGINIA DILLON'S RULE RECORD -- it is the same question answered the opposite way. South Dakota adopted Senate Bill 135, the "Data Center Bill of Rights for Citizens," in the 2026 session, and the law EXPRESSLY BARS THE STATE FROM PREEMPTING LOCAL DATA CENTER ORDINANCES; state law does not replace local zoning. It applies to facilities with peak electrical demand of at least 10 megawatts, requires data center companies to cover the electricity costs their facilities cause, and directs water providers to determine whether projected consumption is compatible with local supply. Operators must report average water use twice a year, the state Board of Water Management must publish those figures, and the board may LIMIT consumption after accounting for residential needs and essential public services. That combination -- protected local authority, cost causation, published water data, and a cap the state can actually impose -- is the most complete statutory package found on this map so far. Yankton County paused new permits for six months in parallel while it writes its own rules.

An 18-month moratorium on new data centers while the county develops standards.

A measure under consideration would require voter approval for data center projects exceeding 450 million dollars.

Port Washington voters approved, by about 66 percent, an ordinance requiring large tax-incremental districts of 10 million dollars or more to first win voter approval, after a grassroots petition. Supporters call it local control; developers warn it adds uncertainty for investment.

In April 2026, 66 percent of voters approved a measure requiring voter approval before any data center tax incentives are granted.

In the Village of Caledonia, Wisconsin, organized resident opposition led Microsoft to cancel a planned data center. Retired tech executive Prescott Balch dug into the project's finances and rallied neighbors; after the win drew national attention, he went on to advise resident groups in at least ten other states and was elected to the Caledonia Village Board in April 2026. The case became a template cited by communities facing similar projects.

Opponents of the 15 billion dollar OpenAI and Oracle Stargate data center in Port Washington filed to recall Mayor Ted Neitzke and a community group sued the city, though construction broke ground despite the legal challenges.

Midwest Environmental Advocates sued Wisconsin regulators in December 2025 to force disclosure of the electricity and water demand of Meta's planned Beaver Dam data center in Dodge County, arguing residents cannot judge the rate and resource impacts while the figures stay secret.

A Jefferson County judge ruled July 10, 2026 that Oxmoor Valley residents' consolidated lawsuit against the Nebius data center rising off Lakeshore Parkway in Birmingham can proceed -- rejecting the city's and builders' argument that neighbors had to go through the zoning board first, and holding that how the city approved the project is a question for a court. The timeline residents are litigating: Nebius bought the land in September 2025, permits issued and construction began by February, and in March the city passed a data-center moratorium that exempted Nebius itself. The Humane Society filed its own suit the same week.

Somerville EXTENDED its data-center pause to 18 months after community pushback against a proposed VoltCore Bitcoin-mining facility -- the most recent of at least six Alabama municipal moratoriums. The developer's tactics are on the record: VoltCore offered nearby homeowners cash, a year of free internet, a natural gas line and land restoration for the easements its power infrastructure needed; every homeowner refused. Morgan County's commission passed its own moratorium Jun 23, 2026 pausing the project -- notable because Alabama's limited home rule generally bars county commissions from ordinances or zoning without legislative approval, so its durability is untested. Statewide context: Birmingham lifted its March pause in favor of a strict ordinance (500-ft residential buffer, tighter utility disclosure); Cullman, Leeds, Homewood and Fort Payne have paused.

Moratorium adopted while Cullman County was blocked from doing the same by Alabama's limited home rule -- county governments cannot pass ordinances, zone property or raise taxes without lobbying the legislature. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Residents fought a Nebius data center in Birmingham through neighborhood associations and council meetings, but a lawsuit alleges the developer outran the city's moratorium with a post-denial permit cascade as construction proceeded.

At least a one-year moratorium on data centers and other high-impact projects. Alabama's limited home rule means county commissions generally cannot follow suit without legislative approval, so municipal action is the whole game. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

At least a one-year moratorium on data centers and other high-impact projects. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

At least a one-year moratorium on data centers and other high-impact projects. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

City Director Kathy Webb proposed an 18-month halt on hyperscale permits, aimed at a planned Google data center, expected before the board in early August. Little Rock adopted a hyperscale definition in June: over 250,000 square feet or more than 75 megawatts. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

THE MORATORIUM LOST. After months of debate, two competing drafts, and a June passage that was voided when the clerk found the emergency-ordinance vote had been miscounted, the Pulaski County Quorum Court voted down the 12-month data-center moratorium 10-3 (one voting present) on Jul 28, 2026. Before the final vote, justices rejected 8-6 an amendment that would have exempted Phase I of AVAIO Digital's roughly $6 billion Wrightsville project -- critics had called the carve-out a free pass, and when the amendment failed the gallery applauded, prompting Judge Barry Hyde to have a man ejected. The Little Rock Regional Chamber had urged rejection as detrimental to economic development. The practical result: no moratorium of any kind is in place, AVAIO proceeds unregulated, and county leaders are drafting permanent rules with nothing paused while they do. Kept as `contesting` for one reason only: justices said plainly after the vote that a new moratorium ordinance would be brought back. The campaign is alive; this round was lost, and the record says so.

Union County's Quorum Court voted unanimously at an emergency meeting on Jun 30, 2026 to adopt Ordinance 1795, a one-year moratorium on new data-center development AND expansions, running Jul 10, 2026 through Jul 9, 2027, while the county studies the effects. The trigger was not a greenfield proposal. Paradox Data LLC already operates an 8-megawatt cryptocurrency-mining facility at 713 Industrial Road in the El Dorado-Union County Industrial Park, and had entered a binding letter of intent with Florida-based Z Squared Inc. that could expand it -- which is why the ordinance reaches expansions and not just new builds, and why the pause halts approvals tied to that site specifically. Residents packed the meeting, several saying they had learned of the deal from a newspaper rather than from their own officials, and raised infrastructure, utility and public-safety concerns. The other side is on the record and belongs here: El Dorado-Union County Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Steven Jones asked the court to hold off, warning that a moratorium on new data centers and expansions could be read by prospective industries and site selection consultants as an anti-growth position, and noted afterwards that the ordinance can be amended or repealed if circumstances change. The Chamber said it had not been told about the potential acquisition either. The court voted for the pause anyway.

Emergency Ordinance 2026-17, adopted unanimously: a 12-month pause on high-impact industrial and high-intensity digital infrastructure. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

On the final day of the 2026 session, Delaware's legislature passed a trio of large-load energy bills aimed at data centers: one requires them to bring their own power generation within ten years, one (SB 326) caps the infrastructure costs Delmarva Power can pass to customers, and one makes data centers first to be cut off during a blackout. Backers warn new data-center demand could double the state's electricity use. The bills head to Governor Meyer and mostly take effect on signature.

Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act (S.4214) on March 25, 2026, with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez filing the House companion (H.R.9442) on June 24. The bill would impose a nationwide halt on constructing or upgrading data centers that draw 20 megawatts or more until Congress enacts strong national safeguards on energy costs, the environment, job displacement, and civil rights. It was referred to the Senate Commerce Committee and faces long odds, but reflects a fast-growing moratorium movement across states and localities.

PASSED 4-3 on Aug 3, 2026, effective immediately -- applause in the chamber when the vote was announced. Ordinance 26-018 imposes a 12-month moratorium on new data centers of ANY size and on other large-load users with projected peak demand of 50 megawatts or more, halting acceptance and review of applications while staff amends the Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code and Lakeland Electric drafts a large-load policy. Three reaches worth naming. Existing data centers may keep operating but may NOT expand. The pause applies to projects OUTSIDE city limits that seek Lakeland utility service -- the annexation-adjacent gap most moratoriums leave open. And Florida's new SB 484 data-center siting law does not cover Lakeland Electric at all, because it is municipally owned -- the city has to build its own protections, which is the argument commissioners gave for the pause. The three no votes objected that the language was too broad and would catch small operators' expansions; Commissioner Guy LaLonde Jr., who first called for the moratorium at the Jun 12 agenda study, answered that too many unknowns remain. Mayor Sara Roberts McCarley stressed it is temporary and can end early once the studies land. Grew from three months of pushback on Ryan Companies' Project Swan (600,000 sq ft, ~100 MW) -- Lakeland Electric's largest current customer of any kind, Publix, draws about 18 MW. A resident cited a Georgia Tech study finding data-center economic benefits smaller and more uneven than promised. Lakeland is the fifth Tampa Bay-area government with a pause, after Citrus, Hernando and Pasco counties and Zephyrhills.

DeSoto County commissioners voted unanimously (4-0, one recused) on Jul 28, 2026 for a one-year moratorium on new data-center applications -- and READ THE EXEMPTION, because it is the story: the pause does not touch the rezoning applications of DCIP Group, the project that provoked it. The county had fast-tracked DCIP through a special economic program; 34 acres at a decommissioned power plant were rezoned in March, the company has since applied for 800+ more, and its stated ambition is more than a dozen data centers across roughly 1,300 acres, with its CEO telling residents daily water use could run anywhere from zero to 3 million gallons. The county's own Planning Commission recommended a two-year moratorium COVERING those applications; commissioners took the county attorney's advice to shorten it and carve the project out to limit legal risk. Months of packed meetings produced a pause that stops only hypothetical future applicants while the 1,300-acre buildout advances. Commissioner Deriso lamented the lost trust; resident Ed Johnson urged the two-year version. Recorded as a moratorium because it is one -- with its perimeter drawn around the thing residents organised against.

Palm Beach County commissioners approved a zoning moratorium on new AI data-center applications to rewrite the rules governing the facilities. The county's most controversial proposal, the 3.6M-square-foot Project Tango near Wellington and Saddle View Elementary, is exempt because it was already in review; the binding commission vote on it is set for July 15, 2026.

After a hearing that ran twelve hours, Palm Beach County commissioners voted 5-1 on July 22, 2026 to deny Project Tango, a proposed 600-acre AI data-center campus west of Boca Raton -- one of the largest single-project denials on this map. Commissioners cited water demand, grid load, and the county's own pending rules for the industry; residents packed overflow rooms for the third consecutive meeting.

Hyperscale data center pause. One of five Tampa Bay-area governments to act, alongside Citrus, Hernando and Pasco counties and Zephyrhills. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Governor Ron DeSantis signed CS/CS/SB 484 on May 7, 2026 in Lakeland; most provisions took effect July 1. Sponsored by Senators Avila, Yarborough and Gaetz. The Public Service Commission must impose large-load tariff and service requirements ensuring those customers pay their own cost of service, and the risk of nonpayment may not be borne by the general body of ratepayers -- every public utility had to file a tariff for PSC approval by October 1, 2026. Two provisions carry more weight than the headlines suggested: customers MAY NOT DIVIDE LOADS at a single location to dodge the large-load tariff, and tariffs, contracts or utility policies MAY NOT prevent or hinder curtailment or interruption of service where needed for grid stability, to limit broader outages, or to protect public safety. Utilities are barred from knowingly serving large-load facilities owned or controlled by foreign countries of concern. On local control -- effective on becoming law, not July 1 -- the act preserves local comprehensive planning and land-development authority over large-load customers and, critically, bars treating them as an electric substation under s. 163.3208 F.S., which is the mechanism that would otherwise have curtailed local say. Water: distinct consumptive-use-permit requirements for large-scale data centers, authority for water management districts or DEP to require partial reclaimed-water use, and CUP modifications must be treated as NEW initial applications rather than amendments. OPPAGA must commission an independent interdisciplinary study of economic, tax, land, water, energy, rate, and public-health impacts, with siting and mitigation recommendations. ON TRANSPARENCY, READ THE ACTUAL TEXT: this is not an NDA ban, as some coverage claimed. It narrows an existing public-records exemption -- economic development agencies keep 12 months of confidentiality on written request, and SB 484 removes only the further 12-month extension, and only for data centers. The secrecy window shrinks from up to 24 months to 12; it does not close. Votes on the enacted version: Senate 31-6, House 92-16 (an earlier Senate passage was 37-0, before House amendment). The 50-megawatt peak-load threshold widely reported is not stated in the Senate summary and rests on secondary reporting.

Citrus County imposed a one-year moratorium on data-center rezoning in May 2026 after packed commission meetings, and the Deltona Corporation withdrew its roughly 800-acre Holder Industrial Park proposal near U.S. 41 once the county's planning board recommended denial. Florida separately enacted a law that bars utilities from shifting data-center costs onto residents.

Marietta residents turned out in force against a data center the City Council had already approved, arguing the hearings had been under-advertised, and the council responded by postponing a further rezoning decision and ADOPTING a temporary moratorium on new data-center projects through December 31, 2026 -- buying time to write rules before the next application arrives. SITE NAMES DISAGREE ACROSS SOURCES and are both recorded rather than reconciled: one describes a 31-acre project on Bells Ferry Road near I-75, the other a proposal at Powers Ferry Place. These may be two separate projects in the same city or one misreported; no primary document was found to settle it.

Moratorium extended through early 2027 after commissioners rejected proposed zoning regulations in June, with additional county departments directed to study industry impacts. Commissioner Ted Terry warned residential power bills could rise roughly $20 a month if data centers expand unchecked. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

After Coweta County commissioners approved the roughly seventeen-billion-dollar Project Sail data center campus in a three-to-two vote in April 2026, residents sued in May to void the rezoning, and a local group began targeting the commissioners who voted yes.

The county pushed off new data center developments through June 2026.

Twiggs County commissioners approved Eagle Rock Partners' roughly 300-acre data center at a contentious September 2025 meeting -- during a months-long window when Georgia had paused its developments-of-regional-impact review, meaning no state-level look at the project's square footage or water needs, which the developer never disclosed. Residents sued, alleging among other things that the rezoning public notice was posted at the wrong location. The case is rural Georgia's version of the pattern this map keeps recording: approval first, details never.

Nelson County's Fiscal Court passed a one-year moratorium on accepting, processing or approving all applications tied to establishing, developing or EXPANDING data centers of any size -- adopted in early July 2026 while officials and residents were still trying to learn whether a specific project was quietly in discussion. District 1 Magistrate Keith Metcalfe said he could not tell what the rumored project even was, and that what he had heard sounded good mainly for its owners. The vote came one day after London KY's city council drafted a two-year pause. Kentucky wave: Lexington-Fayette (through October, unanimous, aimed at a former Lexmark site), Daviess County (12 months, May 28), Allen County (24 months), Madison and Jessamine counties moving, Georgetown seeking zoning rules -- while Louisville tabled its own six-month proposal in June.

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government passed a moratorium running through October 2026 on new data-center development, voting unanimously after residents raised concerns about a project proposed for a former Lexmark property. A pause measured in months rather than years is a different instrument from an 18- or 24-month study window: it forces the zoning work onto a short clock, and the October expiry is the date to watch. Madison County's fiscal court has backed a moratorium, Georgetown's council did the same and asked the Georgetown-Scott County Planning Commission to recommend data-center zoning rules, and Jessamine County's fiscal court has voted on one.

A LOSS in Kentucky's largest city. A Louisville planning and zoning committee voted on Jun 2, 2026 to TABLE a six-month data-center moratorium proposed by council member Jenniffer Chappell, while smaller Kentucky jurisdictions around it -- Daviess, Allen, Nelson counties, Lexington-Fayette, Georgetown, London -- were adopting pauses. The inversion is the record's value: in Kentucky the rural counties moved first and the metro stalled, the opposite of the assumption that cities lead on surveillance and infrastructure limits.

Allen County, a community of about 21,000 along the Tennessee border, passed a 24-month data-center moratorium in 2026 -- among the longest recorded on this map. Republican Judge-Executive Dennis Harper said the county acted after watching the difficulties neighbouring Simpson County had with a hyperscale proposal, framing it as protection until officials work out where such a facility should go if one wants to locate there, and citing noise and lifestyle impacts in plain terms. Learning from the county next door, before any application arrives, is the dominant pattern in Kentucky's 2026 wave.

The Daviess County Fiscal Court approved a 12-month data-center moratorium on May 28, 2026, after residents mobilized over a hyperscale project planned next door at an idled aluminium mill in Hancock County. Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen told reporters he had not heard the term hyperscale before that news broke, and that there is much to learn -- an admission worth recording because it is the ordinary condition of the county officials making these decisions, not an outlier. Local speculation about land deals connected to a company investing in energy and data-center infrastructure, raised by residents and a county commissioner, fed the pressure.

The fight over who pays for data centers has produced a fight over WHO IS ALLOWED TO ARGUE. The Louisiana Public Service Commission is considering a "transparency" rule, framed as identifying potential foreign interference and advancing the state's energy dominance, that advocacy groups and at least one sitting commissioner warn would chill participation and limit which organisations can intervene in utility dockets -- the proceedings that decide how much ratepayers are charged and whether a utility may build a new power plant. The context is not abstract: the Sierra Club and the Alliance for Affordable Energy, two of the groups named in a Pelican Institute report, had both intervened in the commission's docket on Meta's Richland Parish data center. Commissioner Davante Lewis, who had earlier proposed opening a public stakeholder proceeding on data-center grid additions instead of fast-tracking them, called the rule "a solution in search of a problem." Worth tracking as its own record because standing to intervene is upstream of every ratepayer argument: an intervenor rule decides the outcome of dockets it never mentions.

The largest data center on this map is being fought through UTILITY REGULATION rather than zoning, which is why it looked like Louisiana had no opposition at all. Meta is building its Hyperion campus at Holly Ridge in Richland Parish -- $27 billion, eventually 4 million square feet, with a planned peak load about TWICE that of the entire city of New Orleans. In August 2025 the Louisiana Public Service Commission approved Entergy Louisiana's application for three new billion-dollar gas plants and transmission to serve it, over objections from Earthjustice and residents, and the approval rested on a parental guarantee from Meta that ratepayers would be shielded. ON THE SAME DAY THE COMMISSION APPROVED IT, Meta restructured: it moved 80% of the data center into a new joint venture with Blue Owl Capital called Beignet for roughly $3 billion, and Beignet then borrowed $27 billion -- an arrangement the Wall Street Journal called "Frankenstein financing" that lets Meta walk away after a four-year lease. Earthjustice moved on Jan 14, 2026, for the Alliance for Affordable Energy and the Union of Concerned Scientists, asking the commission to investigate whether the new structure gutted the ratepayer protection its own approval depended on. On Feb 25, 2026 the commission REFUSED to investigate. Entergy will build 10 plants in total -- six in Richland Parish, three in Pointe Coupee, one in St. Charles -- plus the largest transmission substation it has ever built, with output equivalent to serving over a million homes. Entergy says Meta covers construction. Logan Burke of the Alliance for Affordable Energy put the risk plainly: either they are overpaying for speed and everyone is on the hook long term, or the deadlines slip after the commission has already locked ratepayers into the risk. A UCS analysis projects Louisiana electricity system costs rising $26 billion over 15 years from data center growth, plus up to $90 billion in public health and climate damages. Amazon is separately building three data centers in the Shreveport-Bossier area.

The Prince George's County Council passed a two-year moratorium on hyperscale data-center development, extending earlier pauses to give members time to write permanent rules. The chair said passing comprehensive legislation would lift the moratorium; the county is separately trying to stop a project proposed for the old Landover Mall site.

The Montgomery County Executive signed an executive order pausing data center permit applications until Maryland completes a statewide impact assessment and the county sets rules.

The Baltimore City Council passed a one-year moratorium on data centers drawing 10 MW or more, ordering a study of energy infrastructure, ratepayer impact, and public health. Supporters of development say the city risks losing investment to nearby Virginia.

The City Council sent a one-year data center pause to the mayor in May 2026 amid concerns over grid and water demands.

Organizers gathered enough signatures for a referendum to overturn a 2024 ordinance that approved 2,600 acres for data centers; the council must decide on timing.

Maryland's Next Generation Energy Act, enacted in 2025, made the state the first in the nation to require large data centers to pay a special electricity rate designed to finance statewide electric-grid improvements, aiming to keep the cost of grid upgrades driven by data-center demand off other ratepayers' bills. Maryland lawmakers also overrode a veto to require a state study of data centers' environmental, energy, and economic impacts, due in fall 2026.

The Jackson City Council introduced a six-month data-center moratorium on July 6, 2026 amid swift community pushback against a proposed rezoning in northwest Jackson, with residents citing strain on the city's water system. Some called for a permanent ban. The measure is set for a vote July 14, 2026.

Charlotte approved a 150-day moratorium on new data centers to update planning rules, after grassroots opposition to two east-side projects.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted 6-0 for a one-year pause on large data centers, including AI and crypto, to revise land-use rules before applications arrive. Backers of the pause frame it as planning ahead rather than a ban.

After Stokes County narrowly approved a roughly ten-billion-dollar data center near Walnut Cove, environmental groups sued over alleged procedural violations in the rezoning, part of a wave of opposition spreading across North Carolina.

The proposed New Hill Digital Campus near Apex was withdrawn in 2026 after community pushback, and the town of Apex moved toward a one-year moratorium on new data centers to buy time for zoning rules.

After the Claremore, Oklahoma city council approved Beale Infrastructure's multi-phase Project Mustang data center in the city's industrial park in May 2026, residents who had packed standing-room hearings fought on: organizers filed referendum petitions to put the three enabling ordinances to a public vote and nine recall petitions targeting the entire city council. The campaign, organized partly through groups like Oklahoma Data Center Accountability, drew national attention after a resident was arrested for speaking past a three-minute limit. Residents cited water use, noise, pollution, and rising power costs, while the city defended the project's revenue benefits.

Governor Kevin Stitt signed HB 2992, the Data Center Consumer Ratepayer Protection Act of 2026, on May 11 (effective July 1). It requires large-load customers -- new facilities adding 75 megawatts or more, including data centers, AI, and crypto operations -- to cover their own electricity and infrastructure costs through separate utility tariffs with credit requirements, so households and small businesses are not left subsidizing them. It also adds transparency: developers must give 60 days' notice before buying land, notifying the Corporation Commission, county commissioners, and property owners within five miles, plus a published public meeting. It passed both chambers unanimously.

The Tulsa City Council voted unanimously for a nine-month moratorium on new data centers, with residents citing siting in underserved neighborhoods and grid impacts. Industry groups argue such pauses chiefly delay projects and forgo investment.

The Tulsa City Council voted unanimously for a nine-month halt on new data centers; some members cited siting in underserved neighborhoods, while development supporters warned about lost investment.

One-year moratorium approved 4-3, paired with rules barring data centers from industrial districts -- adopted despite the county having NO pending applications. A split vote plus a zoning exclusion, with nothing on the table, is unusual and worth confirming. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a complaint over a Colleton County zoning ordinance that would allow a roughly thousand-megawatt data center on hundreds of acres in the rural ACE Basin, one of the Southeast's most important conservation areas, citing threats to wetlands and wildlife.

South Carolina's H.5286, introduced in the 2025-2026 session, would bar the state and all counties and municipalities from granting final approval -- rezonings, permits, incentives, or fee-in-lieu deals -- for any new data center until January 1, 2028, and would set a legal definition for data centers. Backed by a group of Grand Strand and Pee Dee lawmakers amid local opposition such as a contested Marion County project, the resolution remained in the House Ways and Means committee as of spring 2026.

Spartanburg County Council pulled support for a 3 billion dollar TigerDC data center in the Tyger River Industrial Park after community pushback, the developer withdrew, and the council passed a first reading of a moratorium on new data centers.

TWO READINGS DOWN, ONE TO GO -- not law yet. Crossville City Council passed the first reading of a 24-month data-center moratorium on Jul 14, 2026 and the second on Jul 28. Because the ordinance affects property rights it requires three readings, so a third vote is still outstanding and the pause is not in force until it passes. The ordinance would add Title 14 Chapter 12, suspending acceptance, processing and approval of land use, zoning, building, site plan and conditional use permits for data centers and high-density computing facilities pending a study of infrastructure, environmental, acoustic and utility impacts, and it deliberately mirrors language Cumberland County adopted in June so city and county rules line up. The trigger was concrete rather than anticipatory: an existing bitcoin-mining facility has drawn persistent noise complaints from the neighbouring business, Crossville Metal Fabricators. WHY A MORATORIUM AND NOT A BAN, in the officials' own framing: Mayor R.J. Crawford said the city chose a temporary pause specifically to avoid legal liability and multi-million-dollar developer lawsuits, and City Attorney Randall York told council that data centers are challenging moratoriums around the country. Residents pushed the other way -- one speaker argued temporary moratoriums are insufficient and the city should pursue the most permanent bans its legal authority allows. Both positions are on the record because the gap between them is where this ordinance will be tested.

Knoxville's council passed an EMERGENCY ordinance on Jul 7, 2026 imposing a one-year moratorium on permitting or construction of large data centers inside city limits, running until Jul 7, 2027 or until zoning amendments regulating them take effect -- whichever comes first. The pause reaches city permits, building approvals, utility extensions, text amendments and development agreements, which is broader than a permit freeze alone and closes the utility-extension route projects use to arrive sideways. The resolution's stated reasons are unusually explicit for the genre: the sheer size of some facilities, neighbourhood impacts, demand on energy and water, the city's own greenhouse-gas reduction goals, and that data centers often bring few jobs. Mayor Indya Kincannon had written to Knoxville-Knox County Planning executive director Amy Brooks in June asking staff to research placement, function and guardrails. East Tennessee already hosts three data centers in Knoxville and about ten more across the region.

The Paris City Commission voted on second and final reading to place a temporary moratorium on data-processing centers within city limits. SOURCING CAVEAT, NARROWED: verification found only that the Paris Municipal Regional Planning Commission voted Jun 11, 2026 to RECOMMEND a moratorium, which then went to the City Commission. This record's claim that the City Commission passed it on second and final reading is NOT confirmed by any primary found. Treat the recommendation as established and the adoption as unverified until the Paris Post-Intelligencer or city minutes confirm it.

The Hamblen County Planning Commission voted on July 6, 2026 to enact a one-year moratorium on new data-center construction in the county while it develops permanent rules.

Six-month moratorium, days before Knoxville's emergency ordinance. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

The McMinnville Board of Mayor and Aldermen unanimously passed an 18-month moratorium on data-center permitting on Jun 9, 2026, in Warren County. City Administrator Nolan Ming framed it publicly after the vote as a responsible time-out rather than a permanent ban -- time to study electrical grid capacity, water and stormwater impacts, environmental and public-health concerns, noise and community fit, and to update zoning and land-use rules so future decisions rest on information rather than rushed approvals. That framing is worth recording because it is the argument most Tennessee jurisdictions adopted afterward, and because 18 months is at the long end of what municipalities have been willing to defend.

The Nashville Zoo launched a petition that topped 400,000 signatures, backed by country star Brad Paisley, against a 69,000 square foot DC BLOX data center proposed about 50 yards from the zoo, while a Metro councilmember filed legislation to regulate large data centers.

More than 200 residents packed Leon County's Annex 2 building on Jul 13, 2026 as commissioners took up a tax-abatement agreement with Crusoe Technologies for a $34 billion data center targeted to be operational in 2028. Commissioners REJECTED THE APPLICATION AS INCOMPLETE -- a procedural bounce, not a decision on the merits, and Crusoe is expected to file a new one. Treat this as live, not won. Residents objected on three distinct grounds worth keeping separate: Kat Wall on fairness, that a company "95% funded" was seeking a special deal no ordinary citizen could get, and separately that a large facility should have to post a bond in case it goes out of business; Donna Hull that the consensus opposed the data center, the reinvestment zone on prime farmland, and any abatement at all, and that commissioners should press on how much more land a future expansion would take; Rachel Streater on the property-rights line -- no objection to what they do on their own land, but that what stays behind the fence line is the operator's business, and what crosses it becomes an infringement on residents' rights. A local group scheduled a separate public hearing in Marquez for Jul 27 and invited Commissioners Court and Crusoe representatives.

Fort Worth's zoning commission voted 7-4 on July 8, 2026 to deny the city's first-of-its-kind data-center zoning ordinance, siding with residents who argued its setbacks and noise limits were too weak, and returning it toward the City Council with a recommendation to tighten. Residents packed the meeting demanding a moratorium over noise, water and power. Note what this fight is: not one campus, but the rulebook every future campus in the city would be judged by -- which is why a commission rejecting rules as too WEAK counts as pushback rather than approval.

Tyler's council denied a special-use permit for a combined bitcoin-mining and AI data center 5-2 in July 2026 after neighbors organized over noise -- the constant fan roar documented at existing crypto sites across Texas made the case for them.

San Marcos became the first Texas city to prohibit data centers citywide, and the fight over whether it is allowed to has already started. On Jun 16, 2026 the council voted 4-3, on the second reading of Ordinance 2026-08, to amend the city's Land Use Matrix so that data centers are ineligible in every zoning district -- part of a broader development-code overhaul that also touched permitting, parkland dedication and tree mitigation. Mayor Jane Hughson was among the three votes against. A nearly identical amendment had FAILED 3-4 in March, so this passed on a second attempt by one vote. The city says the code went through public hearings, meetings with developers and an open house after council authorised the update in Aug 2025. READ THE LIMITS. First, there are currently no pending data-center proposals inside San Marcos city limits -- the projects are in the unincorporated land around it, and nearly half of the 248 data centers planned for Texas are slated for unincorporated areas no city can zone. Second, the ban is expected to be challenged: state Sen. Paul Bettencourt says the city lacks the authority, pointing to 2025's HB 2559, which limits municipal moratoriums on certain property developments, and the 2023 law restricting local rules that conflict with state law. Council member Amanda Rodriguez says the city is prepared for the fight and that other Texas cities are holding their own ordinances ready depending on how this one lands. The industry's position, from Data Center Coalition state policy vice president Dan Diorio, is that the ban tells investors the city is closed for business. The counter-examples are in the same state: Hill County rescinded its moratorium after a developer sued for $100 million, and Hood County pulled its own after Bettencourt sought an attorney general opinion. Cities have stronger land-use authority than counties, which is why San Marcos is the test case rather than they are.

An effort to cancel tax incentives for a Meta data center failed on a 5-3 vote after nearly 180 residents spoke over eight hours; supporters cited jobs and investment.

Hays County approved an emergency pause on high-water-use industrial development in unincorporated areas through Dec 31, 2026. The framing is the point: the county did not write a data-center ordinance, it wrote a WATER ordinance that data centers fall inside. In a state where roughly half the 248 planned data centers are slated for unincorporated land no city can zone, and where counties that pass explicit data-center moratoriums have been sued or pressured into retreat (Hill and Hood counties both), regulating the resource rather than the land use is an attempt to stand on firmer legal ground. Hays County adjoins San Marcos, which banned data centers outright on Jun 16.

Hill County commissioners voted for a one-year moratorium on data center construction in unincorporated areas, the first such pause by a Texas county, after residents raised noise, water, and electricity concerns about a proposed 300-acre project near Hillsboro.

On May 11, 2026 the Somervell County Commissioners Court -- home of Glen Rose and Dinosaur Valley State Park -- unanimously passed a resolution opposing any new data-center development until the Texas legislature addresses water and energy regulation, and sent state officials a letter demanding stricter oversight. A rural county putting the burden back on the statehouse: not in our county until you write the rules.

A LOSS, and the most instructive one in Texas. Hill County commissioners passed a data-center moratorium 3-2 on May 12, 2026 -- the first county-level pause in Texas -- and then RESCINDED it after a developer sued for $100 million. The reversal is the reason San Marcos, not Hill County, became the test case for whether Texas local governments may restrict data centers: cities hold stronger land-use authority than counties, and counties that move get sued. Hood County pulled its own moratorium the same season after a state senator sought an attorney general opinion. Recording the retreat matters as much as recording the passage -- a map that shows only the wins tells communities the fight is easier than it is.

A seventy-megawatt data center proposed for Hutto in Williamson County was pulled in April 2026 when the developer withdrew its rezoning request ahead of a planning hearing, after formal resident protests triggered a supermajority approval requirement under Texas law.

Commissioners rejected a proposed six-month moratorium after a state senator warned the county lacked authority and urged the attorney general to intervene. Update, July 20, 2026: District Judge Bryan Bufkin dismissed the developers' lawsuit claiming their concept plans won automatic approval when the county missed a 30-day statutory shot clock -- ruling the filings were not 'development plans' under the statute and the claim cannot be refiled in its current form. National CRE Holdings and MARA-affiliated Greenland Capital appealed. Protect the Paluxy Valley called it a win in a war over groundwater: wells in the valley are already chasing the water table down.

Residents around the 1,677-acre Matrix data center campus in Hopkins County have packed council meetings, filed multiple lawsuits, and won a key motion keeping their legal challenge alive in 2026, the largest opposition cluster in one Texas tracker.

Texas enacted SB 6 in June 2025 to govern large-load customers -- those with 75 megawatts or more of demand -- in the ERCOT grid region. The law requires such data centers to pay for interconnection studies and infrastructure upgrades, demonstrate financial assurance and site control, and disclose duplicate interconnection requests, and it establishes protocols allowing utilities to disconnect large loads during grid-stress events along with new rules for co-location arrangements.

A 750 million dollar Rock Creek East data center in Fort Worth, Texas gained rezoning approval but faces legal challenges over city water regulations.

Virginia -- home to the world's largest concentration of data centers -- enacted a package of data-center bills in its 2026 session. HB 153, with companion SB 94, was chaptered in April and creates a High Energy Use Facility permit for projects drawing 100 megawatts or more, requiring applicants to submit a site assessment of the facility's noise profile on homes and schools within 500 feet and letting localities also weigh impacts on water, agriculture, parks, and historic sites. A companion measure, HB 1393, requires large loads of 25 megawatts or more to pay for the new generating capacity they trigger rather than shifting those costs to other customers. The state's roughly $1.6 billion data-center tax exemption remained unresolved.

The Virginia House of Delegates rejected bills (SB 619 / HB 155) that would have created a state-level certification process for data centers and other very large electricity users. Sponsor Sen. Kannan Srinivasan (D-Loudoun) and reform advocates argued certification is the prerequisite for understanding and controlling the statewide grid and environmental impact of proposed facilities -- precisely the assessment that Dillon's Rule prevents counties from making for themselves. Related history worth carrying: outgoing Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bill requiring localities to conduct site assessments before approving new data centers, despite bipartisan support; Abigail Spanberger took office Jan 17, 2026, and the measure is expected to return. The General Assembly did advance legislation in January 2026 to restrict future construction to industrially zoned land.

The Prince William Digital Gateway rezoning is being fought in court rather than at the ballot box. Oral arguments were heard Feb 24, 2026 in the Virginia Court of Appeals in Arlington; an amicus brief argued that approval would lead to the irreversible desecration of hallowed ground and the despoiling of natural and cultural resources. The county is spending public money defending the project: it approved $400,000 in additional litigation funding, bringing its total defense spending to about $1.7 million, and Supervisor George Stewart moved to have that transfer reconsidered. The Coalition to Protect Prince William County, formed in 2014 and hardened during the Haymarket Dominion transmission-line case -- where a 230kV double-circuit line to serve an AWS campus was routed through Gainesville land held by African American families since the 1800s -- is the through-line of two decades of this fight. WATER IS THE ARGUMENT MOST LIKELY TO TRAVEL: a single large data center can draw up to 5 million gallons a day, and Prince William holds the headwaters of the Occoquan watershed, the reservoir supplying roughly 40% of Northern Virginia's drinking water. A separate win landed in mid-April 2026, when Northern Virginia landowners and preservationists prevailed at the state appeals court against a developer consortium -- on the ground that the county failed to follow state rules on posting public notice.

Hanover County officials voted against rezoning agricultural land for a 430-acre data center, one of several Virginia localities tightening approvals even as the state leads the nation in data centers. Supporters cited tax revenue; opponents cited farmland and infrastructure.

READ THIS BEFORE READING VIRGINIA'S NUMBERS. Loudoun County -- which alone hosts more than 586 operational data centers, with Prince William adding roughly 90 -- states that its Board of Supervisors DOES NOT HAVE THE LEGAL AUTHORITY to impose a moratorium on new data center applications, because Virginia law requires it to consider each rezoning or special exception application on its own merits. Virginia is a Dillon's Rule state: counties may act only where state law explicitly permits. In Home Rule states such as Indiana and Georgia, counties can legislate independently, which is why moratoriums appear there and not here. So the sparse pushback count in the world's largest data center market is not evidence of consent -- it is a measure of what the localities are allowed to do. In Virginia the fight necessarily moves to the General Assembly, the State Corporation Commission and the courts, and every Virginia record on this map should be read in that light.

The State Corporation Commission approved a new electricity rate class for the largest power users, data centers among them, in November 2025 -- designed so the cost of the grid upgrades these facilities require is borne by the facilities rather than spread across all ratepayers. It takes effect JAN 1, 2027, and Virginia is one of about a dozen states that have now turned to special data-center rate classes. This is the state-level instrument that survives a change of county board, and in a Dillon's Rule state it is most of what is available. Related: regulators set aside Dominion Energy's initial rate-hike request, which would have raised rates by nearly 25% in 2026 and about 50% in 2027. Virginia lawmakers separately avoided a government shutdown with a compromise that put the country's first data center energy consumption tax on the table. Del. Michelle Maldonado Roem has pressed further -- eliminating the sales tax exemption, a statewide moratorium, barring by-right development, restricting construction to industrially zoned land, and a bill requiring data centers to pay 100% of the energy costs they contract for.

The Loudoun County board ended by-right data center zoning, so new projects in the nation's densest market now require a public hearing and planning review rather than staff-level approval. The county still credits data center revenue with cutting residential taxes, so officials frame it as added scrutiny, not a ban.

Citizens for Fauquier County sued over an Amazon data center campus, winning a court order that stalled the project for at least a year, while town council members who backed the project lost re-election.

Balico's 300 megawatt data center project in Mill Creek, Virginia was canceled amid local opposition.

A 3 billion dollar, 300 megawatt Province Group data center in Midlothian, Virginia won approval but faces strong community opposition.

Amazon's Ashton data center proposal in Manassas, Virginia faces community pushback over building near homes and schools, with noise and wildlife concerns blocking progress.

Headwaters Site Development withdrew its $400 million Catlett Station data center in Fauquier County in July 2024, halting a 67-acre rezoning just before a scheduled Planning Commission hearing.

Culpeper County's Planning Commission unanimously denied a $12 billion, 426-acre data center rezoning at Brandy Station in June 2024 amid concerns over rural preservation and the adjacent Civil War battlefield park.

The $24.7 billion PW Digital Gateway, a 2,100-acre rezoning led by QTS and Compass next to the Manassas National Battlefield, became the largest and most contested data center fight in the country. After the county approved the rezoning, activist groups filed at least three lawsuits over the project's environmental impact, grid strain, and threat to historic land; a dismissal was appealed to the Virginia Court of Appeals, leaving it unresolved.

Amazon's 6 billion dollar King George data center, approved in 2023, hit resistance after a newly elected Board of Supervisors moved to renegotiate the deal and voted to reconsider rezoning over 500 acres back to agricultural use.

The Chandler City Council unanimously rejected a 422,000-square-foot data center proposed by Active Infrastructure, despite lobbying that included former Senator Kyrsten Sinema. Supporters cited tax revenue, while residents and council members cited limited jobs and strain on power and water.

A 422,000-square-foot data center by Active Infrastructure drew local debate in Chandler; a former US senator lobbied locally in favor while residents raised concerns over resources.

After heavy public opposition over water and power, the Tucson City Council voted against annexing land for the large Project Blue data center. Pima County later approved a version with conditions requiring air cooling and approved water sources, so backers say the project advances while critics count the city vote as a win for local control.

Tract's $14 billion data center park west of Phoenix -- reported as the largest blocked project in the country -- was withdrawn in May 2024 after residents pressed local officials to reject the rezoning over building heights, noise and strain on local resources. The same withdrawal was reported both as "west of Phoenix" and as "near Buckeye," which describe the same West Valley area; a second record duplicating it has been merged in. ONE LOOSE END, LEFT VISIBLE RATHER THAN DROPPED: sourcing also says Tract LATER proposed a similar campus nearby in Buckeye. A later proposal cannot also be the thing withdrawn in May 2024, so either a subsequent Buckeye project exists and is currently UNRECORDED on this map, or that detail is mistaken. Worth one search before Arizona is treated as settled.

The Coachella City Council voted unanimously on July 8, 2026 to extend its 45-day data-center moratorium by another 10 months and 15 days while it drafts a permanent ban. A draft ban goes to the planning commission July 15, with council adoption votes set for August 12 and 26.

Monterey Park became the first U.S. city to permanently ban data centers by ballot: voters approved Measure NDC on June 2, 2026 by 88% (10,321-1,362), amending the General Plan to prohibit data centers citywide. The vote followed the withdrawn HMC StratCap / DigiCo project at 1977 Saturn Avenue.

The roughly 330 MW Imperial Data Center drew a multi-front fight. The City of Imperial filed a CEQA complaint over the missing environmental review; residents began gathering signatures for a November 2026 'Imperial County Data Center Prohibition Act' ballot measure; and in June 2026 county supervisors reversed course, declaring a 45-day moratorium and forming an advisory commission. Developer Sebastian Rucci responded by seeking a court restraining order against the moratorium.

San Jose -- home to at least 40 data centers, second in California only to Santa Clara -- directed its city manager to draft data-center guidelines in 2026, though critics are skeptical given a 2025 PG&E partnership to ease development.

For months developer Sebastian Rucci said his Imperial Valley AI complex would not touch Colorado River water. In June 2026 his company, Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing, sued the Imperial Irrigation District for about 880 acre-feet a year -- roughly 260 million gallons, the annual water of some 7,300 residents -- after the district rejected its application in May and recycled-water talks with Imperial and El Centro collapsed. A cooling load of about 750,000 gallons a day, litigated out of the most water-strained river system in the country, in a valley where the river is the only fresh water there is. The county that approved it is now fighting it on every track: the City of Imperial sued challenging the project's CEQA environmental review, and local voters are gathering referendum signatures to ban data centers countywide -- weeks after Monterey Park became the first US city to ban them outright.

Calipatria's city council voted in May 2026 to draft a moratorium that could block data-center projects in city limits for up to five years, amid the Imperial County fight; the mayor was blunt in his opposition.

Alhambra banned data centers as part of a zoning code update, part of a San Gabriel Valley backlash in which several neighboring cities also moved against the facilities.

Montebello enacted a temporary moratorium on data centers amid the San Gabriel Valley opposition wave that also reached El Monte, Baldwin Park, and Alhambra.

El Monte enacted a temporary moratorium on data centers as San Gabriel Valley cities moved to slow or block the facilities.

Baldwin Park enacted a temporary moratorium on data centers during the 2026 San Gabriel Valley backlash.

A 79 million dollar four-story GI Partners data center in Santa Clara, California was approved but local opposition delayed construction by six months.

Broomfield City Council voted 9-0 on July 7, 2026 to pass Ordinance 2313, an 18-month moratorium halting land-use applications, site plans and building permits for data centers with a projected load of 10 MW or more. It takes effect immediately and runs through December 2, 2027 or until permanent rules are adopted; residents cited drought-state water use and rising electricity demand.

Denver approved a one-year pause on new data centers in May 2026 to study energy, water, and land-use rules.

A plan to retrofit industrial space in Colorado Springs into a data center drew overwhelming opposition at a standing-room-only public meeting in April 2026, with residents citing noise, power, and water concerns.

Denied twice and still not over. Lex Developments sought a conditional use permit for a $2.6 billion AI data center on roughly 59 acres of the former Hoku Materials polysilicon site at 1800 River Park Way. The May 14, 2026 public hearing filled Pocatello's council chambers with hundreds of residents standing along the walls and into the foyer; more than 100 testified across more than four hours. On May 19 Hearing Examiner Kathleen Lewis denied the permit, finding the application inadequate on three of seven required criteria -- public facilities, environmental impact, and public health and welfare. Lex appealed on Jun 1, one day before the deadline. On Jul 16 the City Council voted 4-1 to uphold the denial, restricted to the existing record and barred from considering new evidence; Council Member Dakota Bates cast the lone dissent, citing the risk that a denial lands the city in district court. Mayor Mark Dahlquist pressed the developer on who would actually use the facility, and the answer -- multiple potential users and a signed letter of intent, none of them present -- drew applause. STILL LIVE: on Jul 29 Lex filed a request for reconsideration arguing the Jul 16 hearing was itself procedurally defective on five independent grounds; the city had not yet issued its written decision, and no reconsideration date has been set. The developer has also signalled a district-court appeal. Context: the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes formally opposed the project, agreeing the developer failed to provide enough information for meaningful review and warning of electricity-rate increases for tribal members. Idaho House Bill 895, effective Jul 1, 2026, restricts data-center water rights and requires closed-loop systems for projects breaking ground after that date. Idaho Power told the hearing the applicant would bear all substation, transmission and generation upgrade costs, not ratepayers.

Residents mounted sustained opposition to a proposed data center at the Bonner Mill site across from the district's only school, citing water use, noise, air quality and Montana's constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment. County staff repeatedly deemed the developer's special-exception applications incomplete through the first half of 2026.

Broadview, a Montana town of about a hundred people roughly 30 miles north of Billings, organized against Quantica Infrastructure's proposed 5,000-acre Big Sky Digital Infrastructure data center campus. Resident Cari Olson founded the group Just One Montanan to press state legislators for guardrails before such projects are approved, warning about water in a tank town that trucks in much of its supply. The group brought in an out-of-state data center opponent to share tactics as the fight continued.

Boulder City is appealing the Bureau of Land Management's approval of a data-center project on federal land outside its borders -- a rare case of a city fighting a campus it cannot zone against, on the ground that the federal review shortchanged water and viewshed impacts in the driest state in the country.

Voters in Boulder City, Nevada will decide on a fall 2026 ballot measure whether to prohibit data center construction in the city.

Reno council members voted to support a 30-day moratorium on data center projects, with a follow-up vote to consider extending it.

Sierra County commissioners adopted an 18-month data-center moratorium on Jul 21, 2026 -- passed by a surprise amendment during the meeting rather than as a noticed agenda item, while residents were there to protest a proposed development near Spaceport America. It is the fourth New Mexico jurisdiction to act in six months, after Bernalillo County's Data Center Guardrails Resolution in February, Socorro County's one-year pause in June and Santa Fe County's 18-month ordinance on Jun 30. Four counties moving independently in half a year is why state legislators announced a statewide moratorium bill for the next session.

DENIED TWICE, AND NOW THE PERMIT DOMINO. Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard rejected Energy Transfer's applications (two rights-of-way, one business lease) for a 0.6-mile stretch of the 17-mile, 24-inch Green Chile lateral across state trust land on Mar 20, 2026, and on Jul 14 denied reconsideration, citing the state trust's interest, Project Jupiter's greenhouse-gas emissions, and its draw on New Mexico's water. The pipeline is not decoration: it would carry 400 million cubic feet of gas per day to 2.5 GW of Bloom fuel cells powering the 1,400-acre Oracle/OpenAI campus under construction at Santa Teresa -- part of the $500B Stargate build, with Stack and BorderPlex investing up to $165 billion. BLM approved the federal stretch; the state segment is the chokepoint, and rerouting means new private-landowner agreements. THE DOMINO, as of Aug 5: New Energy Economy moved to DISMISS Yucca Growth Infrastructure's air-quality permit application on the strength of the pipeline denials, and NMED's hearing officer ordered a response within a week. Oracle VP Mahesh Thiagarajan told county commissioners there is no immediate contingency if the air permit fails. The NMED permit hearing, first set for October, was RESCHEDULED TO SEPTEMBER on Jul 31. Two lawsuits separately allege the county approved the $165B bond package on an incomplete application. Oracle's counter-case: 4,000 construction jobs, 440+ New Mexicans on site, 1,500 ongoing jobs, $50M for county water repairs, cooling water under nine households a year.

Santa Fe County commissioners adopted an 18-month data-center moratorium in July 2026 with no project even proposed -- pausing the industry preemptively while the county writes water, energy, and zoning rules. The purely precautionary moratorium is a new genre on this map: regulate before the application arrives, not after.

EIGHTEEN months, not twelve, and the threshold is the story. The Santa Fe County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously on Jun 30, 2026 to adopt a moratorium on data-center development, effective immediately, while staff write regulations covering water, energy, noise and land use. Two things changed between the draft and the vote, both in response to public comment from residents, Tribal members and advocates who filled the chambers. The pause was lengthened from the proposed 12 months to 18. And the regulatory threshold was lowered from 100 megawatts to ONE megawatt -- roughly the electricity use of 1,000 homes -- for an explicit reason: at 100 MW a developer could simply propose a 99-megawatt facility and walk straight through the gap. That anti-gaming amendment is the part worth copying, and the part a one-sentence summary loses. The ordinance was sponsored by Commissioners Lisa Cacari Stone (District 2) and Hank Hughes (District 5). Hughes framed it around water supply risk; Cacari Stone, who said she had been tracking data-center trends in rural areas since Project Jupiter and then Socorro County broke into the news, called it prevention rather than prohibition forever. READ THE POSTURE: there are no data centers in Santa Fe County and none proposed. This is a county with more staff capacity than most in New Mexico deliberately building a model ordinance before a developer arrives, and commissioners said the point was partly to give smaller counties something to copy. It follows Bernalillo County's Data Center Guardrails Resolution in February and Socorro County's one-year moratorium in June, and was followed by Sierra County's own 18-month pause on Jul 21.

After a Canadian CEO proposed building what he called the largest alternative-energy data center in the world -- 10,000 acres with New Mexico Tech, possibly powered by small modular reactors -- Socorro County residents packed town halls for months, commandeering a university forum in May. On June 9, 2026 the county commission unanimously adopted a yearlong moratorium on data centers and related infrastructure, and stood up an advisory committee of residents and experts to write the rules before any application lands. The CEO had told the community: if you oppose us, we're out. They took him up on it.

ADOPTED, NOT EXPLORED -- and adopted by ambush, deliberately. Hillsboro, which hosts more data centers than any other Oregon city at roughly 35, called a special council meeting on Jul 27, 2026 with a single day's public notice and unanimously enacted a 120-day land-use moratorium on new AND expanded data centers and battery energy storage systems. Council President Rob Harris said the short notice was a conscious decision: announce it early and the industry files a rush of applications the day before the vote. The trigger was May, when the city fielded 17 tax-break applications from data centers racing to beat a state moratorium on incentives. The mechanics, from the city's own announcement: until at least Nov 24, 2026 no land-use applications for data centers or BESS as a primary use will be accepted, processed or approved; accessory use is capped at under 20 percent of square footage, construction value, or electrical capacity (or 20 MW); projects filed before the moratorium proceed. The resolution rests on the state law allowing a pause where existing ordinances are inadequate to prevent irrevocable public harm -- Hillsboro appears to be the first Oregon city to use that formal land-use route, where Hood River's April vote skipped it and may be merely advisory. Council may extend six months. The rulemaking runs on a published schedule: staff drafting code amendments (siting limits, reclassification by function, height and sustainability standards), Planning Commission hearing Aug 26, first reading Sep 15, adoption possible Oct 6 -- each on this site's calendar. Mayor Beach Pace framed it as land-use planning reflecting long-term community priorities; Councilor Alcaire told residents she did not move to Hillsboro to give data centers a break on energy bills.

The La Pine City Council voted unanimously to reject an 800 million dollar Boxminer.io data center on 19.5 acres in the city's industrial park, after residents packed a meeting and spoke for hours against it.

Oregon's POWER Act, signed in August 2025, directs the state Public Utility Commission to establish a separate rate class for large energy use facilities of 20 megawatts or more, such as data centers, so the grid-infrastructure costs their demand drives are allocated to the developers rather than spread to other ratepayers. The law also requires new large energy users to sign power-purchase agreements of at least 10 years, committing them to pay for their projected energy use and any new transmission the projects require.

In the Columbia River Gorge, residents recalled two Port of Cascade Locks officials in June 2023 over a $100 million data center, citing rising utility rates and doubts about the developer. The newly seated board canceled the project the next month, an early example of community opposition reversing a data center through the ballot box.

In Utah's June 2026 primaries, Box Elder County commissioners who advanced a massive data-center project lost their seats, and state Sen. J. Stuart Adams -- who backed the site through a state authority -- was defeated by a challenger running on opposition to it. 'Do I think that the data center vote cost me the election? Yes I do,' conceded Commissioner Lee Perry. In a county Trump carried by double digits, the electoral lesson crossed party lines: alongside Festus, Missouri recalling half its council and Warrenton, Virginia turning over its entire pro-project majority, voting for a data center is becoming the most dangerous vote a local official can cast.

A moratorium on new data center development while the county sets rules.

Hundreds rallied at the Utah Capitol to stop the Stratos Project on the Great Salt Lake north shore after county commissioners voted to let it proceed.

Hundreds rallied at the Utah Capitol to stop the Stratos Project, a data center proposal spanning 40,000 acres on the north shore of the Great Salt Lake, after county commissioners voted to let it proceed despite local objections.

La Conner's Town Council placed a moratorium of at least six months on data-center permit applications -- having received NO applications and no inquiries. That makes this one of the few purely preemptive pauses on this map, and Planning Director Ajah Eills was explicit about the reasoning: it lets the town take a beat and decide whether any form of data center would ever be appropriate there or whether to handle them more prohibitively, noting communities across the country being impacted and the town's proximity to a large water source, which the facilities all need. Staff will draft an ordinance writing data centers into the land-use code for the first time, following Skagit County's own moratorium for unincorporated areas. Two residents had called for the pause at the previous meeting. A public hearing is expected at the Aug 25 council meeting (see calendar). Date approximate to the council's late-July session.

The Burien City Council passed Ordinance No. 905 unanimously on Jun 29, 2026 -- a one-year emergency moratorium on accepting, processing or approving building and land-development permit applications to establish OR EXPAND data centers, declared an emergency and effective immediately on passage rather than after the usual waiting period. Interim City Attorney Ann Marie Soto told the council the city has nobody on staff with data-center expertise, so Burien borrowed the definition and much of the language from Seattle's ordinance, which had passed three weeks earlier on Jun 9. That borrowing is the story worth noting: a small city with no technical capacity of its own can still act quickly by copying a larger neighbour's text, and it is how this wave is spreading through King County. The pause buys staff and councillors time to weigh resource demands against claimed job creation before permanent rules are written. The vote came at the end of a long agenda covering Comprehensive Plan and zoning updates, transportation impact fees, and public comment on local immigration arrests.

Data center moratorium adopted, two weeks after Seattle and days before Burien -- the Washington cluster moving in sequence. SOURCING: recorded from a statewide tracker rather than a local primary. The jurisdiction, duration and date are as the tracker reports them; the vote count and ordinance text have not been read directly. Treat specifics as provisional pending local confirmation.

Washington enacted SB 5982, requiring large energy users including data centers to meet the same clean-energy deadlines as utilities under the Clean Energy Transformation Act -- carbon-neutral electricity by 2030 and 100% renewable or non-emitting by 2045 -- and directing the Utilities and Transportation Commission to set reporting requirements. A broader cost-allocation bill (HB 2515) failed, deferring the larger fight to 2027.

Seattle enacted a data center ban in mid-2025 as several cities moved to restrict new facilities.

The Cheyenne City Council rejected a proposed data center moratorium by an 8 to 1 vote, declining to pause new development despite resident concerns.

A bipartisan revolt against data centers has swept the United States. The nonpartisan group Data Center Watch counts more than 140 local campaigns that stalled or blocked over 60 billion dollars of projects in about a year, communities in at least 14 states have passed local moratoriums, and in 2026 Prince William County abandoned the Digital Gateway, once pitched as the world's largest data center campus. Voters have since ousted pro-data-center incumbents and a Los Angeles County city became the first to ban the facilities outright.