Data Centers: Daily Notes | July 13, 2026

Santa Fe County, New Mexico

Santa Fe County commissioners approved an 18-month ban on data center development on July 1, even though no data centers have yet been proposed in the county, giving officials time to write land-use and environmental rules before any project moves forward.

The county is the second in New Mexico to impose a data center moratorium this year. Officials plan to use the 18-month window to develop standards covering siting, environmental review, utility impacts and water use, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.

County leaders framed the pause as temporary rather than a lasting prohibition, intended to let them assess whether local water, power and land resources could support data center development before any applications are considered. The approach mirrors moves by other communities nationwide weighing similar tradeoffs between economic development and infrastructure capacity.

Emporia, Kansas

Emporia Neighbors United launched a revised petition seeking to prohibit hyperscale data centers and certain battery storage systems in the city, after the Lyon County Election Office rejected the group's original petition for failing to meet Kansas statutory requirements.

The original petition, submitted July 7 with 1,358 signatures collected over 13 days, exceeded the 804 valid signatures organizers said they needed, but the city did not specify which requirement it failed to meet. If a future petition succeeds, the Emporia City Commission could either adopt the proposed ordinance directly or put it before voters.

Anti-data center petition fails to meet Kansas statutory requirements in Emporia

EMPORIA (KSNT) – Local officials have denied a petition put forward by Emporia residents and a community organization to halt the development of data centers Friday. The City of Emporia share…

KSNT 27 NewsMatthew Self

The petition drive runs alongside the city's separate review of the proposed Flint Hills Digital Campus, which has drawn significant public debate over its economic benefits versus water use, infrastructure strain and environmental impact. City commissioners and City Manager Trey Cocking plan to attend a utility planning summit in Topeka on July 15 and 16 focused on large-load developments, ahead of the commission's expected consideration of Planning Commission recommendations on the digital campus at its July 22 meeting.

Van Buren, MI

Van Buren Township officials granted Google roughly $125 million in local property tax breaks over 12 years for its "Project Cannoli" data center, a project some residents are now pushing to recall the entire township board over.

The half-off property tax discount applies to a data center planned to be roughly the size of eight Walmart supercenters near Detroit Metro Airport, expected to draw more power than 750,000 homes. In exchange, the township is set to receive a $15 million Google payment into a local infrastructure fund, local hiring requirements and other conditions, with Google projected to become the township's largest taxpayer, paying between $6 million and $12 million annually even with the discount.

Google has said the project results directly from the state's 2024 tax exemption framework and that it is committed to procuring clean energy, protecting ratepayers and using municipal water, though it has not said whether or when it will formally apply for the state incentives.

San Jose, California

Community advocates in North San Jose are questioning whether Google's proposed 483,000-square-foot facility at 5079 and 5087 Disk Drive is actually an unlabeled data center, after blueprints revealed a 250-megawatt substation, generator yards and cooling towers.

Kelly Abreu of Mission Peak Conservancy said the project shows the classic signs of a data center, arguing that Google's "research and development" labeling could avoid the added scrutiny of a special use permit.

A Google spokesperson maintained the facility is for internal chip engineering lab work only and doesn't need the backup power generation typically required for data centers, since no external customers rely on its uptime. UC Riverside engineering professor Shaolei Ren said a standard R&D facility wouldn't require substations or server rack configurations at that scale, and that a 250-megawatt substation could make the project one of the largest data centers in California if used exclusively for it.

Mason County, West Virginia

Runoff from the Monarch data center construction site flooded the Meadowlands Estates neighborhood again July 11, marking the second flooding incident since work began this year, with water impacting two crawl spaces and several outbuildings.

Data center construction site runoff floods Mason County neighborhood again

Residents near the Monarch data center construction site in Mason County are cleaning up after runoff from the project flooded nearby properties for the second

WCHSBETHANY JARRELL

Monarch officials said the company is paying for damages and reassessing its stormwater controls following the latest event. After a similar flood in May, the company added silt fencing, double barrier rows, berms and drainage paths, measures that failed to hold up against this weekend's storms. Resident Kevin Queen said some families had only just moved back into their homes after the first flood before being hit again, calling the repeat incident a sign of incompetence. A company representative, Bechtel, said crews remain in the neighborhood assessing drainage lines and cleaning affected homes.

The flooding comes as Monarch runs a voluntary home purchasing program launched last month for Meadowlands Estates residents, with roughly 30 homes already in the process. The overall data center project spans about 2,200 acres and is expected to take five to six years to complete.

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Ames, Iowa

Ames City Council will discuss potential limits on data centers Tuesday, alongside a proposal from Des Moines-based LightEdge to build a facility just west of the airport over a planned 10-year development timeline.

The council heard from LightEdge and gathered community feedback at a meeting last month. Assistant City Manager Brian Phillips said the council must decide whether to pursue lease negotiations with the company, pass on the opportunity altogether, or take broader regulatory action that would apply to future data center projects citywide. The city attorney is expected to present a memo outlining potential limitations at Tuesday's meeting.

Public input won't be allowed during the session itself, though the council has asked residents to submit comments by email ahead of the discussion.

Clinton, Iowa

Clinton's plan commission is reviewing a 15-page data center ordinance this week that would allow the facilities in industrial zones with city council approval, as a tech company considers a proposed $10 billion data center campus for the city.

The draft ordinance would require developers to submit extensive documentation, including a project narrative, site plan, utility and water-use plans, a pre-construction noise and vibration study, a traffic study, a stormwater management plan, and a decommissioning plan, along with written confirmation from the electric provider that it can meet the project's power demand. Data center buildings would need to sit at least 100 feet from all property lines and 500 feet from residential zones, schools, daycares, hospitals, nursing homes, churches or public parks, with certain mechanical equipment also kept 500 feet from homes. Developers would have to show their cooling systems are water-efficient and won't unreasonably burden the city's water supply or treatment capacity.

Alamance County, North Carolina

Alamance County Commissioner Pam Thompson wants her colleagues to begin discussing data center regulation, including a potential moratorium, even though no data centers currently operate in the county.

Commissioners to begin discussing data centers, possible moratorium - alamancenews.com

It wasn’t so long ago that high-tech data centers were the darlings of economic development. Now, with the rise of A.I. supercharging the demand for these behemoth facilities, the proliferation […]

alamancenews.comTomas Murawski

Thompson cited the 93 data centers already built or proposed statewide and said she's concerned about water consumption, electricity demand and noise, especially given the county's lack of zoning in rural areas. She flagged the issue to board chairman Kelly Allen and vice chairman Steve Carter last month, and Allen said the county's planner and attorney are researching the topic with an eye toward bringing information to the board's July 20 meeting, the earliest date available under the summer's reduced schedule. Allen said he's personally concerned about the loss of farmland and resources tied to such facilities.

Nutley, NJ

Nutley residents pressed officials at Tuesday's Board of Commissioners meeting over an 11-acre Kingsland Street parcel advertised as "data center approved," even though officials say no application has actually been filed.

Mayor John V. Kelly III said the town has no pending data center application before the board but acknowledged one could eventually come. The site, part of the larger ON3 campus that replaced Hoffmann-La Roche's former headquarters, was once slated for a truck terminal, a project the town fought in court before reaching a settlement with developer Prism Capital Partners last year that withdrew the terminal and amended the redevelopment plan to permit a data center instead. Officials said the parcel is likely too small for a large AI-focused facility and more suited to a traditional financial services data center with lower power demands, similar to one already operating on the town's River Road.

Granville Township, Pennsylvania

Granville Township officials held an emergency meeting Sunday after receiving a data center land development proposal just minutes before the township office closed Friday, drawing about 100 residents who urged supervisors to reject the project.

Supervisors Joseph Fiore and Terry Stewart said they had been prepared to pursue a curative amendment, a step residents had requested in May, but followed the township solicitor's recommendation to instead continue drafting a data center zoning ordinance. Township Solicitor Fred Lighty said he stands by that decision. Because the proposal was submitted before any ordinance could be adopted, Lighty said the new rules being discussed at Wednesday's town hall won't apply to this application, though he hopes the developer will voluntarily follow many of its stricter standards.

Pennsylvania Green Party gubernatorial candidate Tony Dastra urged the township to become the first in the state to formally oppose large-scale data center development. The proposal covers two parcels, one surrounding a Walmart off Middle Road and another on Loop Road, and still faces multiple review and approval steps before any decision is final.

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