San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors passed a temporary, 45-day moratorium on data centers citywide today, halting the construction of new centers, including one proposed in Dogpatch.
The move follows increased fears surrounding the potential environmental harms of data centers, many of which are planned or already exist in District 10, the city’s industrial southeast.
The measure, first proposed by District 10 supervisor Shamann Walton and co-sponsored by supervisors Connie Chan, Jackie Fielder and Cheyenne Chen, will take effect immediately. Sources close to Walton’s office say the supervisor hopes the moratorium will result in a permanent ban.
The San Francisco Planning Commission will assess, during the ensuing 45 days, whether the several data centers throughout San Francisco, including larger facilities in District 10 and smaller, regional ones downtown, pose an environmental threat to nearby residents.
During the moratorium, the planning department will study the data centers’ effects on water, energy, air quality, land use, and the surrounding community.
In the legislation, data centers are broadly defined as any “facility, or part of a facility, that houses computing infrastructure, including graphics and central processing units, servers, storage devices, networking equipment, and associated power and cooling systems, for the primary purpose of processing, storing, or distributing electronic data.”
If the data centers are found to have a significant environmental impact, the moratorium could be extended up to 22 months — or, alternatively, result in permanent controls or restrictions.
At the conclusion of the 45-day period, the planning department will hold a hearing to present its findings.
The moratorium will pause the expansion of NOVVA, a 7.6-acre data center at 400 Paul Ave. in Bayview, which was slated to increase output from nine to 36 megawatts by 2028.
Permits have been filed for an additional, 160,000 square foot data center in the Dogpatch at 1215 Michigan St., but no construction has yet taken place — though an extended moratorium could put plans to expand data centers in San Francisco on hold for an undetermined period.
Walton’s term will end in January 2027, potentially before the end of a moratorium if it is extended beyond four months. But strong regulations on data centers — and potentially an all-out ban — have gained increasing support among the candidates racing to replace Walton.
Each of the front-running candidates, Theo Ellington, J.R. Eppler, and Dion-Jay Brookter, have expressed support for a moratorium. Brookter was, at first, the only candidate to propose a permanent ban but, during a recent candidate forum, all the others said they would support one, too.
District 10’s Bayview-Hunters Point, which has two of the city’s largest data centers, has experienced a disproportionate level of air pollution for decades, including from increased truck traffic and a since-shuttered PG&E power plant.
“We need to know what these impacts are,” said Walton, at the time he announced his plans to introduce the moratorium. “Until we know what that is, it needs to stop.”
How many data centers are there already in the city? I heard 16!
Data centers being concentrated in Bayview is all you need to know to understand their toxicity (biologically, environmentally, socially, and politically)
Will the billionaire tech-backed “moderate” members of the board (current and future) reverse this in January, right after the election? I’m sure the tech oligarchs of this town will demand it.
From a land use perspective this issue needs more study than a 45 day moratorium: social justice, sustainability, industrial base protection, environmental effects and Native Peoples conservation — are only the tip of the iceberg. It would be prudent to look at alternatives.
Data Centers are the bot engines steering us toward a path of irreversible thought control…
These Data Centers aren’t the 1000 Megawatt datacenters that’s powering Claude & ChatGPT. These Data Centers are your local netflix,hulu & other media content including this website that consumers consume on their phones and computers everyday. They would not even think about building AI Data Centers in the middle of San Francisco. The amount of time it takes PG&E to bring 100+ or 1000+ megawatts would take them 10-15 years, and they don’t have the power generating capacity or infrastructure to even bring it to San Francisco. The power & water rates are a lot higher then other parts of the country also. So yes it is possible but not economically feasible. This is just the City Supervisors show boating as usual right now.
Remember the issue about where Recology would put the landfill?
They tried to put it in Willets right next to the fields. We fought it and it ended up Altamont Pass. Data centers should first be judged as to whether they are safe in humans hands ( I don’t think so) and then maybe situate them in a safe area.
What about the negative effects on a city-wide basis? Who benefits from going all electric and building massive power grid systems that will be competing with citizens for water and power? Who will own that power and that grid system? And where will the cooling grey water go? See some issues that are already turning up around the country: Data Centers Now Facing Backlash Over Contaminated Wastewater: https://zrants.wordpress.com/2026/10/05/data-centers-now-facing-backlash-over-contaminated-wastewater/