Local moratoriums June 3 / 5 templates now (regulate-instead-of-ban, authority-doesn't-run)

Plain-English framing. The May 24 newsletter flagged that the moratorium playbook had bifurcated into three templates (pre-emptive total ban / square-footage carve-out / megawatt carve-out). This week added two more templates, both useful to name explicitly because they keep showing up. Template 4 — REGULATE-INSTEAD-OF-BAN (Little Rock). The political dynamic in Little Rock was strong opposition to a specific named project (the $1B Google-backed proposal) but a council that chose to write better zoning rules instead of freezing all development. The ordinance route is materially friendlier to developers in the long run than the moratorium route because it sets known, durable rules instead of a 6-12 month uncertainty window. Cities with active LD interest in data-center revenue but vocal community opposition will likely copy this. Template 5 — AUTHORITY-DOESN'T-RUN (Brown County). A countywide moratorium fails because in many states (WI being one), counties don't have direct zoning authority over the municipalities inside them — the cities and towns do. Brown County's planning committee correctly noted that a countywide pause is largely symbolic; the binding venue is each constituent municipality. This is a useful clarifying signal because it tells developers exactly where to focus political-relations spend: not the county board, but the specific town or city council that owns the zoning map. The Scarborough action is a clean Template 1 (pre-emptive moratorium with retroactive effective date — the retroactive April 1 is the part to flag, because it explicitly catches in-flight applications, not just future ones). Chesterfield VA is a court-validates-denial case: the project was already denied; this week's news is that the procedural appeal failed and the denial holds. Sources: Press Herald 'Scarborough Town Council approves data center moratorium' (June 3); Arkansas Advocate 'Arkansas' largest city approves new data center ordinance' (June 3); Daily Reporter 'Brown County drops data center moratorium proposal' (June 3); WisBusiness 'Brown County proposal on pausing data centers going before local committee'; WTVR 'Chesterfield Zoning Appeals Board denies appeal over proposed data center campus near I-95'; Stop Data Centers in Your County (floridadatacenters.org / datacenterbans.com aggregators); Governing 'Voters Deliver a First-of-Its-Kind Rejection of Data Centers' (Monterey Park 86% ban vote).

Primary source · Press Herald / Arkansas Advocate / Daily Reporter / WTVR ↗