Plain-English framing. The Seattle moratorium freezes any new data center at or above 20 MVA (which is roughly 16 MW of real load using typical 0.8 power factor). The roughly 30 existing co-location facilities in the city are grandfathered and each can expand by up to 20 MVA without triggering the freeze. Carved out entirely: 911 call centers, municipal facilities, hospitals, universities, cancer research. The moratorium can be extended once for six months; the permanent zoning legislation it pauses for is expected by early 2027. What triggered it. In April 2026, four separate companies proposed five large-scale data centers in Seattle totaling 369 MW of new load. The city had no zoning framework for any of them. What makes the template different. Most moratoriums are categorical (no data centers, full stop). Seattle's is continuous-variable — every existing operator gets a measurable expansion budget, and every new project below 20 MVA is unaffected. That converts the moratorium from a binary ban into a planning constraint a developer can engineer around (split a 50 MW project into three 16 MW sites, for instance). Who passed it. CM Eddie Lin (D2), Council President Joy Hollingsworth (D3), and CM Debora Juarez (D5) co-sponsored. The 9-0 unanimous vote in a major US tech city is the political signal — there is no longer a 'pro-data-center' wing on this council.
Primary source · Seattle City Council official blog ↗
Why it matters
Seattle is symbolically the biggest moratorium yet — the first Tier 1 tech-employer city to enact one, with full city-council unanimity. The 20 MVA expansion-headroom design is a new template variant worth adding to the knowledge graph as 'continuous-cap moratorium,' distinct from categorical bans (Surry NC, Newberry SC). Other code cities under home rule authority (Bellevue, Portland, Austin, Denver, Boston) now have a template they can copy without inventing legal scaffolding. Cliff's siting tool should treat 'continuous-cap states' as a separate routing category — a developer who can split a load below the cap can still build, where in a categorical state they cannot.
Related filings
Minneapolis 5-month moratorium / passed Jun 25 / 350k sqft + downtown geographic exemption (I-35W / I-94 / Plymouth Ave / Mississippi River) / first size+geo combined exemption mechanic / Inver Grove Heights 1-year moratorium / passed 3-2 Jun 26 / QLevr 54k sqft Carmen Ave / $150M damages letter Iverson Rivers Law Firm / EAW petition filed Jun 25 / second large-damages-threat moratorium-still-passed / MN becomes 4th state cluster / MISO show-cause territory
Plain-English background. Minnesota sits in MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) — the same RTO that just received FERC's June 18 show-cause order on large-load tariff design. Minnesota's data center growth had been more measured than...
Moratorium wave / IL + MN + NV + WA / one week
Plain-English framing: a 'moratorium' is a city or county council voting to stop accepting, reviewing, or approving any new data-center applications for a fixed window (here ranging 30 days to 12 months) while staff study water, power, and noise impacts. It...
WGLT / WAND / CBS Minnesota / KUNR / Seattle City Council ↗
NV Reno / 6-1 vote / first Nevada moratorium / June 1 final
Reno is the second Mountain West city to enact a data-center moratorium this month (after Denver's May 18 vote, which is happening today), and the first in Nevada to do so at any level of government. The 6-1 vote at a 7-hour special meeting is one of the...
Data Center Watch Q1 2026 report $130B blocked/delayed 3 months matches all 2025 / 75+ projects across 49 states / 833 active opposition groups 2.1x from 396 Dec 2025 / 69+ local government bans by May 2026 / 70% Americans oppose nearby DC up from ~50% late 2025 20pp shift 6 months / Seattle 1-year pause 5 projects / WFYI Jul 6 Indiana investigation / 11 counties ordinances / 17+ counties moratoriums / Marshall + Cass permanent bans / ~1/3 of 92 IN counties restrict / state vs local direction divergence IN PA WI
Plain-English framing of why these two data drops together are the story of the last week. Individual moratorium votes and lawsuits are anecdotes; the macro numbers tell you whether the anecdotes are a scattered pattern or a directional trend. Both data drops...