The Data Center Moratorium Wave: 9 Towns and Counties That Hit Pause in Late June 2026

By AI Laws USA · 2026-07-01

From a first-in-Texas outright ban to 18-month pauses in New Mexico and Tennessee, local governments spent the last week of June slamming the brakes on data centers. Here is the map of who said no.

The story of AI infrastructure in 2026 is being written in city council chambers and county commission rooms, not just in Congress. In the final days of June, at least nine local governments across nine states voted to pause or ban new data centers — usually citing the same trio of worries: electricity costs, water use, and noise. None of these towns is Silicon Valley; they are places like Somerville, Tennessee and Lynn Haven, Florida, where a hyperscale campus would reshape the grid and the tax base overnight. We track every one of these local actions the day they happen. Below are nine from a single week; browse the live map at ailawsusa.com for all of them.

1. NEW LAW

   1. San Marcos becomes the first Texas city to ban data centers outright

   San Marcos, TX (city) · Effective — Land Use Matrix amended (4-3 vote)

   The San Marcos City Council voted 4-3 to amend its development code's Land Use Matrix to prohibit data centers in ALL zoning districts — not a pause, a ban — making it the first Texas city to do so. A striking move in the state that hosts more data-center load than almost any other.

   Cite this source ↗ · View live entry on the map →

2. MORATORIUM

   2. Santa Fe County pauses large data centers for 18 months

   Santa Fe County, NM (county) · Enacted — 18-month moratorium

   The Santa Fe County Commission approved an 18-month moratorium on large-scale data-center projects while it writes land-use, energy, and water rules — the water angle especially pointed in the arid Southwest.

   Cite this source ↗ · View live entry on the map →

3. MORATORIUM

   3. Springfield, Missouri freezes new applications 8-0

   Springfield, MO (city) · Effective — 120-day pause (through Nov. 17, 2026)

   Springfield's City Council voted unanimously to stop accepting new data-center applications for 120 days while it builds a 'public-interest evaluation framework' covering power, water, and land use. A short, surgical pause rather than a long freeze.

   Cite this source ↗ · View live entry on the map →

4. MORATORIUM

   4. Somerville, Tennessee pauses data centers amid a bitcoin-mining fight

   Somerville, TN (town) · Enacted — 18-month moratorium

   The Somerville Town Council approved an 18-month pause on data centers, triggered by a dispute over a proposed bitcoin-mining facility — a reminder that 'data center' zoning fights increasingly sweep in crypto mining too.

   Cite this source ↗ · View live entry on the map →

5. MORATORIUM

   5. Westfield, Massachusetts votes unanimously for a one-year moratorium

   Westfield, MA (city) · Enacted — 1-year moratorium

   The Westfield City Council unanimously imposed a one-year moratorium on data centers to study zoning and health impacts — the New England entry in a wave that had been concentrated in the South and West.

   Cite this source ↗ · View live entry on the map →

6. MORATORIUM

   6. Burien, Washington enacts an immediate one-year freeze

   Burien, WA (city) · Enacted — immediate 1-year moratorium

   The Burien City Council unanimously enacted an immediate one-year moratorium on new data centers, giving staff time to study impacts and draft regulations before any project can move.

   Cite this source ↗ · View live entry on the map →

7. MORATORIUM

   7. Lynn Haven, Florida names AI directly in its moratorium

   Lynn Haven, FL (city) · Enacted — 1-year AI-data-center moratorium

   The Lynn Haven City Commission enacted a one-year moratorium barring staff from accepting, processing, or approving any 'AI data center or data center' proposal — notable for writing 'AI' into the ordinance text itself.

   Cite this source ↗ · View live entry on the map →

8. MORATORIUM

   8. Sherman Township, Michigan — the townships join in

   Sherman Township, Huron County, MI (township) · Enacted — 12-month moratorium

   Sherman Township approved a 12-month moratorium halting acceptance and approval of new data-center development — one of several rural Michigan townships (Solon Township in Kent County did the same) using zoning power to get ahead of speculative projects.

   Cite this source ↗ · View live entry on the map →

9. MORATORIUM

   9. Town of Clay, New York pauses data centers, AI compute, and crypto together

   Clay, NY (town) · Enacted — 1-year moratorium

   The Clay Town Board approved a one-year moratorium on large-scale data centers, AI computing facilities, and cryptocurrency operations, and adopted a battery-storage law the same night — a tidy example of a town reworking its whole energy-infrastructure code at once.

   Cite this source ↗ · View live entry on the map →

Nine actions, nine states, one week — and this is not the full list (Union County, AR; Washington County, MD; Logan, UT; Lewisville, TX; and Berlin Township, PA moved in the same window). The pattern is unmistakable: local government, not Congress, is where the first real limits on AI infrastructure are being written. Track them all, updated daily, at ailawsusa.com.

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