Charlotte City Council Unanimously Imposes 150-Day Data Center Moratorium — Largest US City to Pause

Charlotte City Council voted unanimously June 8, 2026 to impose a 150-day moratorium on new data-center development, making Charlotte the largest US city to do so. Staff disclosed at a May 27 public hearing that a single data center already under construction near University Place could consume 1.2 million gallons of water per day in summer — roughly equivalent to 4,000 homes. Two projects already under construction are exempt: Digital Realty’s 400MW campus near Charlotte Douglas Airport and PowerHouse’s 300MW University City facility. The moratorium opens a formal planning study on grid load, water, utility rates, and economic impacts, directly preceding any Channel A/B tariff or abatement decisions for future Mecklenburg County projects.

Charlotte’s action extends the county/city-level datacenter moratorium wave the timeline tracks through Loudon County, TN (2026-06-30–loudon-county-tn-six-month-data-center-moratorium) and Linn County, IA (2026-07-01–linn-county-ia-18-month-data-center-moratorium-vote), but at a notably larger municipal scale than the county-level actions elsewhere in the pattern.