San Francisco supervisors pass 45-day data-center moratorium

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors today passed a temporary, 45-day moratorium on data centers citywide, halting the construction of new centers including one proposed in Dogpatch. 

The move follows increased fears surrounding the potential environmental impacts 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’ impact 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. Though permits have been filed for an additional, 160,000 square foot datacenter in the Dogpatch at 1215 Michigan St., 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 — has 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.”