San Francisco Supervisors Vote Unanimously to Halt New Data Center Construction

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to impose a 45-day moratorium on new data center construction, with a provision allowing the pause to be extended for up to 22 months. The freeze applies even though the city is home to two of the country’s most prominent AI companies, OpenAI and Anthropic.

The moratorium halts new projects while city planning officials study their effects on energy use, water consumption, air quality, land use and surrounding neighborhoods. A hearing on those findings is expected by November, according to Mission Local, which first reported on the vote.

“We need to know what these impacts are. Until we know what that is, it needs to stop,” Supervisor Shamann Walton said.

Despite its status as a hub of AI development, San Francisco does not have a clear count of how many data centers already operate within city limits. Bloomberg reported it could find no comprehensive tally. The San Francisco Standard counts six sites.

Two projects now sit on hold because of the new freeze. One is NOVVA’s facility at 400 Paul Avenue in the Bayview neighborhood, which currently draws 9 megawatts of power but had applied to expand to 36 megawatts. The other is a proposed 49.5 megawatt data center on the Dogpatch waterfront, which was still in permit discussions with Mayor Daniel Lurie’s policy staff as recently as August, according to the Standard. Sponsors of the Dogpatch project have argued that the surrounding Bayview-Hunters Point area is already overburdened by air pollution.

A National Pattern

San Francisco’s action adds to a broader wave of resistance to data center development nationwide. Data Center Watch, a project of the AI intelligence firm 10a Labs, has tracked $68 billion in data center projects delayed over the past three months alone, accounting for more than half of all new large-scale developments the group monitored during that period.

Data Center Watch’s lead analyst, Miquel Vila, said the opposition is spreading. “New groups continue to emerge, opposition is appearing across a wide range of states and jurisdictions, and online petition signatures continue to grow,” he said.

The group has identified 843 opposition groups spanning 49 states, with Hawaii the sole exception. Roughly 30 state legislatures have introduced or adopted rules governing data center siting, electricity consumption or water use. In Tennessee, a petition against a single data center project collected more than 500,000 signatures on Change.org, representing more than a third of all signatures gathered on the platform that quarter, according to Data Center Watch.