Memphis City Council pauses new data center approvals for 135 days

The Memphis City Council on Oct. 20 voted down a longer data center moratorium, which would have allowed study of impacts on air quality, water and noise, and instead passed a substitute ordinance that bars the city from accepting or approving new data center applications and permits for 135 days while planners draft permanent land-use rules, according to CBS News and the ordinance text posted by the city; work under permits already issued and existing data centers are exempt. Some council members said they received the substitute on short notice and had no time to review it, CBS reported. Residents have opposed data center development since Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI built its Colossus 1 data center there in 2024, and in neighboring Southaven, Mississippi, the NAACP and other groups have sued over alleged pollution from gas turbines powering the company’s data centers, per CBS.