The Oakland City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend its data center moratorium until next October.
The 10-month-and-15-day extension is designed to give city staff enough time to research and develop new regulations and development standards for any future requests to build data centers in Oakland.
In October, the City Council passed an “urgency ordinance” that established an initial 45-day moratorium.
Following that vote, the city’s Planning and Building Department developed a process by which any new regulations will be proposed, including public outreach, a project website that will launch by the end of the year and research into how other cities handle data center development requests, among other things.
City staff also plans to consult with local utilities and regulatory bodies like PG&E, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, the Bay Area Air District and Ava Community Energy to better understand capacity limits and other potential impacts.
“So, as an example, the air quality district, we’re most concerned about the impact of any generators that might be associated with these facilities and what impacts they may have on air quality and make sure that we’re addressing those to what we adopt,” William Gilchrist, director of Planning and Building, said in a presentation prior to the vote.
Gilchrist said that his department will also be looking to hire an outside consultant and that gathering community input and participation will be among his top priorities.
Any recommendations that Gilchrist and his staff come up with will be presented to the city’s Planning Commission for its input before the City Council has a chance to make a final decision.
An equity issue
Councilmember Carroll Fife, who introduced the moratorium extension, said the issue was of particular importance to the people who live in her West Oakland district, where decades of industrial activity and pollution have had long-term negative health impacts.
“Right now we’re seeing an uprising across the country when it comes to how data centers are operating in regards to land use, the impacts to the environment through excessive water use and pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, a host of things that are negatively impacting communities,” Fife said during Tuesday’s meeting.
“And because I represent a district where many of these potential entities are interested in and two of the giants in the tech industry have leased space in West Oakland and there’s been another show of interest in a Downtown location, I felt it was imperative that I take immediate action to protect Oakland residents from what we’ve seen happen in other parts of the country,” she said.
Fife said the moratorium extension and any new regulations don’t represent a rejection of technology or economic growth but are intended to be “guardrails” that protect the community.
Councilmember Rowena Brown voiced her support for the moratorium and said it was vital that the City Council receive regular updates from city staff so that everyone is on the same page when the process comes to a close.
“Right now we’re seeing an uprising across the country when it comes to how data centers are operating in regards to land use, the impacts to the environment through excessive water use and pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, a host of things that are negatively impacting communities.”
Councilmember Carroll Fife
Councilmember Zac Unger said one of the key components of the process will be to develop a clear definition about what is and what isn’t considered a data center.
“I think it’s really important that we do not accidentally create chilling effects for light manufacturing and industrial uses,” he said.
Councilmember Ken Houston said he wants to ensure that any new regulations around data center operations are vigorously enforced.
The extended moratorium will give the city until Oct. 5, 2027 to draft and approve new rules to govern how data center proposals are reviewed and approved and how the city can maintain regulatory control over such facilities.
Other Bay Area cities that have approved similar moratoriums include San Francisco, Gilroy, Richmond, Brisbane, Oakley and Hayward.
