San Diego, California: City Council Unanimously Backs 45-Day Moratorium on New Data Centers

The San Diego City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday, October 27 to ratify a temporary moratorium on data center development in San Diego, California, halting the permitting, approval and development of new data centers within city limits for 45 days. The vote ratifies the pause Mayor Todd Gloria set in motion last week and gives city staff 180 days to bring back preliminary recommendations for permanent rules. The council can extend the moratorium for nearly two years if it chooses.

What the council approved

The emergency pause grows out of Gloria's Executive Order 2026-2, signed on October 22, which directed the City Planning Department to bring the moratorium forward for ratification. Under state law, an urgency moratorium of this kind needs a four-fifths council vote, and it received every vote. Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera added direction for the rules that follow: quick council notice of any proposed data center, protections so project costs are not passed on to residents, project labor and renewable energy requirements, and minimum distances from schools, parks and child care centers. The order also creates a Data Center Stakeholder Working Group with technology experts, community advocates, utility and water professionals, and housing and land use experts.

Gloria said the pause is about keeping development from outrunning the city's duties. "Data centers can place significant demands on electricity, water, land and infrastructure," he said in a statement issued after the vote. "San Diego welcomes innovation, investment and the jobs that come with them. What we will not do is ask residents to absorb unnecessary costs or neighborhood impacts."

The Navy site the city cannot zone

The debate was sparked by a proposal floated by Manchester Financial Group for the NAVWAR campus, the 70-acre Naval Information Warfare Systems Command site near Old Town. A data center of about 400 megawatts has been discussed as one of several options for the federal land, which could make it one of the largest in California. Because the Navy owns the site, the city moratorium likely cannot block a project there, and council members have urged San Diego's congressional delegation to press the Navy on the plan. The developer has said a data center is one of several options under study and that no final decision has been made.

What residents told the council

Dozens of San Diegans spoke at Tuesday's meeting, nearly all of them opposed to new data centers, and some speakers wore costumes to make the point. "San Diegans were clear, unambiguous and passionate about why data centers don't belong in San Diego," Council President Joe LaCava said. Councilmember Stephen Whitburn put the housing argument plainly: "San Diego needs more affordable housing, not more computer servers."

What happens next

City departments now have 180 days to deliver preliminary recommendations to the mayor and council, covering water supplies, electricity demand and costs, housing opportunities, infrastructure and surrounding neighborhoods. Until those rules exist, no new data center can be permitted, approved or built on land the city controls.