Louisville—Kentucky’s largest city—signed off on a six-month data center moratorium Thursday night.
The Louisville Metro Council voted 24-1 in favor of the moratorium, which will block new data center proposals for six months or until the council passes a set of data center regulations for Jefferson County.
The lone “no” vote came from Councilman Stuart Benson, a Republican who has represented a suburban swath of southeastern Jefferson County on the council since 2002.
Chants of “Liar! Liar! Liar!” rang out as a crowd of anti-data center protesters cleared the room following the vote—the conclusion of a tense discussion, featuring multiple remarks from council members about decorum and at least one protester getting kicked out after a back-and-forth with the council president.
Some council members tried to amend the data center moratorium at the last moment, hoping to extend it to a full year. That effort failed on a 10-15 vote.
The council’s vote comes as the city tries to craft a set of regulations for data centers following months of public pushback and concerns over environmental and health issues for already underresourced areas, along with fears of increased utility rates. A series of public hearings to solicit feedback and answer community questions wrapped up Monday, with a revised set of data center regulations expected to be considered by Louisville Metro Council in the coming weeks.
Louisville’s initial draft data center regulations included an outright ban on hyperscale data centers over 500,000 square feet, limits on how close smaller centers could be to schools and neighborhoods, and restrictions focused on protecting ratepayers and the environment.
Some anti-data center protesters believe the draft regulations don’t go far enough, pushing the council to adopt a set of regulations from the Kentucky Resources Council instead.
Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order earlier in August placing statewide regulations on data centers, but ultimately leaving the decisions on whether or not to allow them to build up to local officials.
