The Memphis City Council passed an ordinance that halts data center approval for 135 days after rejecting an 18-month moratorium.
A large crowd gathered in the council chambers to support the 18-month moratorium, but it failed on a 6-6 tie vote.
Memphis is already home to SpaceXSI's Colossus, which has an agreement with the city to invest 25% of the tax revenue into communities within five miles of the site. The $3.3 million collected in fiscal year 2026 is proposed for nine different projects, according to the council's agenda. The largest amount of money, $1.4 million, will go toward home repair assistance and other issues related to housing stability. The proposed plan allocates $500,000 to pay workers to clean up the neighborhood.
"I recognize that they say y'all can bring jobs, investment and opportunity to Memphis," said Johnathan Isom, cofounder of the community service group Young Minds United, in testimony before the council supporting the moratorium. "We must also consider our air, our water, our electricity. This is why we need the moratorium, not to stop progress, but to give our city time to study the risks, establish protection and make sure our communities are not left behind like we've been left behind for so long."
The ordinance, which passed by a vote of 7-5, gives the council time to review issues, including zoning.
"The only thing that we can do is land use," said Memphis City Councilwoman Rhonda Logan. "The only reason why Elon Musk was able to come to Memphis is because of the zoning. He saw the land, he bought the land, he built this facility and opened it up because it was zoned industrial."
Moratoriums or bans on data center construction are being passed by local governments across Tennessee, but at least one has faced a legal challenge.
DCB Nashville, a subsidiary of DC BLOX, challenged the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County's temporary pause of data centers in federal court. The company applied to construct a data center near the Nashville Zoo. The council not only passed a temporary moratorium that halted DCB Nashville's project but also agreed to seize the data center land from the company through eminent domain.
U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson dismissed the company's lawsuit, but the company said it plans to amend its complaint. The moratorium remains in place through Dec. 1.
Server racks in a data center. Photo: Brett Sayles / Pexels
