Data center moratoriums in 2026: the counties and cities that paused new data centers

How many data center moratoriums are in force?

As of November 13, 2026, 40 county and city moratoriums on data centers pass every check in Spezia's tracker. They are in 23 states. 20 were adopted by counties and 20 by cities, towns and townships.

local moratoriums in force today

40

states with at least one

23

tracked projects inside one

39

more proposed or moving

80

A moratorium is a pause. A county or city stops accepting, reviewing or approving data center applications for a set time, usually while it writes zoning rules. The pause is public, dated and voted on, so it can be checked.

This count is strict on purpose. The tracker holds 309 local moratorium records. Its page lists 100 as in force by their status. Only 40 also carry a date that shows they still bind, and that is the number used here. It is a floor, not a census.

How the 309 local records are counted

Every record sits in exactly one row below. Only the first row is called "in force" in this post.

The 49 adopted records with no date to check are the biggest gap. Many are likely still in force. Spezia does not call them in force until a date is found, because a moratorium that quietly lapsed is worse to rely on than one left out.

Which states have the most moratoriums?

Michigan has the most in force, with 4, followed by California, Iowa and Maryland with 3 each. California has adopted the most over time, 15, but most of those no longer pass the check: they ended, ran out or carry no date. The table counts every state with at least one local moratorium adopted or in force. "Adopted" includes ones that have since ended. Each state name opens its page of tracked projects.

In all, 110 local moratoriums in the tracker were adopted at some point, and 40 of them pass the check today.

Every data center moratorium in force

Each row is one county or city, with the date it was adopted and its term or end date as recorded. 14 of the 40 link to the official text. The rest link to the report the tracker read, and the official text should be checked before acting on it. Extensions are common, so an end date can move.

Hillsboro's runs out on Nov 24, 2026 unless extended, so it may drop off this list soon. 13 of the 23 moratoriums with a stated term run for about one year. 18 give an end date. A few are short urgency ordinances of 45 days, which a council can extend.

When were they adopted?

47 adopted local moratoriums carry an adoption date. By that date, the busiest month was June 2026, with 13. In 2026, 14 were adopted from January to May and 32 from June on.

Read this as a lower bound by month. A moratorium enters the chart only when its adoption date is on record, so the undated ones are missing from it.

What a moratorium means if you build, supply or lend

A moratorium usually stops new applications and approvals. It often leaves alone a project that already has its approvals, but that depends on the text. Here is how it reads for each buyer.

• Contractors. A pause in a county freezes work that has not reached approval yet. Jobs on those sites can slip until the pause ends and the new rules are in place.
• Suppliers. Equipment orders tied to unapproved sites in a moratorium area are at risk of delay. Watch the end dates in the table, because that is when new rules usually arrive.
• Lenders and investors. A loan or deal that assumes a local approval in a moratorium area carries schedule risk until the pause ends. Ask whether the project's approvals came before the adoption date.
• Developers and site teams. The new rules written during a pause often add setbacks, noise limits, water rules or a special use permit. Read the draft ordinance while it is still out for comment.

The same pattern shows up in the news. For a month of local fights counted event by event, see data center opposition and delays. For a checklist on any single project, see how to vet a data center project.

Which tracked projects sit inside a moratorium?

39 tracked data center projects sit inside the area of a moratorium in force. They fall under 9 of the 40 moratoriums. The match is by place only: a site or town inside the county, or the same city.

Spezia does not say which of those projects a moratorium stops. That depends on whether a project already holds its approvals and on the words of each ordinance. In the tracker, a moratorium marks a project's local approval as blocked only when the project has no local approval on record yet.

To see the projects in your states, with their status and the public records behind them, open the data center tracker and pick a state. The free sample there lists active projects in up to three states.

What about state moratoriums?

New York has a statewide pause, and it came by executive order. Executive Order 62, signed July 14, 2026, holds pending state environmental permits for data centers of 50 megawatts or more until the state finishes an environmental review. It does not pause local approvals. The legislature also passed a one-year pause on state permits for data centers of 20 megawatts or more, A11560, on June 4, 2026, as DLA Piper reported. On November 13, 2026, the state Senate's page for the bill did not show it delivered to the governor.

No state law in Spezia's records pauses new data centers in general. In 2026 state legislatures handled 37 bills that would pause something, from new data centers to a tax break. One became law: Oregon's HB 4084, which limits a state tax program for data centers rather than pausing construction.

Other governors' orders on data centers are tracked too, with their status, in the app. For every state bill and where it stands, see data center legislation in 2026.