La Crosse WI City Plan Commission Advances 18-Month Data Center Freeze; Council Vote Aug 13

On August 3, 2026, the La Crosse City Plan Commission voted to advance an 18-month moratorium on data center development, mirroring La Crosse County’s 18-month moratorium enacted in June. The city moratorium covers facilities storing more than 1 petabyte of data or consuming more than 2 MW — a threshold that catches mid-size facilities county zoning might miss. The full La Crosse Common Council votes August 13.

The coordinated city-county lockout is a variant of the moratorium wave now documented across dozens of jurisdictions this cycle — from Charlotte’s 150-day freeze (2026-06-08–charlotte-city-council-150-day-datacenter-moratorium) to Santa Fe County’s 18-month pause (2026-07-02–santa-fe-county-nm-data-center-moratorium-18-months) and Linn County, Iowa’s 18-month rezoning halt (2026-07-01–linn-county-ia-18-month-data-center-moratorium-vote). What distinguishes La Crosse is the two-layer jurisdictional lock: a county moratorium closing unincorporated land, paired with a city moratorium closing incorporated land at a lower size threshold, together foreclosing the usual siting workaround of moving a project just across a municipal boundary.