10-DAY REPORT ON THE CITY OF RICHMOND’S 45-DAY
URGENCY MORATORIUM ORDINANCE PLACING A TEMPORARY MORATORIUM
ON THE ISSUANCE OR APPROVAL OF PERMITS AND LAND USE APPLICATIONS
FOR DATA CENTERS WITHIN THE CITY OF RICHMOND PENDING A PUBLIC
PLANNING PROCESS TO EVALUATE WHETHER AND UNDER WHAT
REGULATIONS DATA CENTERS MAY BE PERMITTED, AS REQUIRED BY GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 65858(d)
BACKGROUND:
On September 15, 2026, under Government Code Sections 65858 and 36937, and following notice and a public hearing, the City Council adopted Ordinance No. 13-26 N.S., a 45-day urgency moratorium, by a four-fifths vote. The City Council adopted the moratorium to protect the public health, safety, and welfare by pausing new data centers within the City of Richmond while the City completes a public planning process to evaluate whether and under what regulations data centers may be permitted. Because the City adopted the moratorium after notice and a public hearing, Government Code section 65858(b), allows the City Council to extend it once, after a further noticed hearing, for up to 22 months and 15 days. Under Government Code section 65858(d), at least 10 days before the 45-day ordinance expires, the City must issue a written report describing the measures it has taken to alleviate the conditions that led to the moratorium. This report satisfies that requirement. The 45-day moratorium expires on October 30, 2026.
MEASURES TAKEN TO ALLEVIATE THE CONDITIONS THAT LED TO THE ADOPTION
OF THE URGENCY ORDINANCE
1. Since September 15, 2026, City staff has been developing a community engagement plan to receive input from stakeholders, including neighborhood councils, utilities representatives, business groups, data center operators, labor sources, and residents on the contemplated municipal code amendments. This effort has included compiling a list of stakeholders to engage in the community input process.
2. City staff have been researching existing data center development in other jurisdictions to understand use, scale, key features, operations, and impacts.
3. City staff have started reviewing other city regulations across a variety of cities including Hayward, Santa Clara, Monterey Park, and Loudoun County, Virginia with a range of regulatory environments to determine best practices.
4. City staff has started interviewing utility providers in Richmond, including PG&E and East Bay Municipal Utility District, researchers, and planning staff of other municipalities to study and holistically analyze aspects of a data center in developing policy recommendations.
5. City staff has created a project webpage on the City's website to post information about the project. See: www.richmondca.gov/datacenterstudy
6. City staff has analyzed studies regarding the water, power and noise implications of data centers published by the Lawrence National Laboratory as well as the UC Berkeley Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment.
7. Staff prepared and issued a Request for Proposals seeking a consultant to lead the community engagement process and policy development for this work.
These actions reflect the work the City has done during this short period. The conditions that led to the moratorium continue to exist, and the City needs more time to complete its analysis and research, hold a public planning process, develop appropriate regulations based on public input, and protect the public health, safety, and welfare. For these reasons, the City Council should extend the interim urgency ordinance now in effect.
CONTINUED NEED FOR THE MORATORIUM
The City's work to address the underlying need for the moratorium is ongoing. At the Council's direction, staff are studying and will conduct a public planning process to evaluate whether and under what regulations a data center may be permitted, including a possible full prohibition. These contemplated regulatory changes require public outreach, further study, a public hearing before the Planning Commission, and two hearings before the City Council. Staff cannot complete this work within the initial 45-day period, which ends on October 30, 2026. The need for the moratorium therefore remains, and staff recommends that the City Council adopt an ordinance extending the moratorium for 22 months and 15 days—the longest single extension Government Code section 65858, subdivision (b), allows. Unless the City Council extends it, the moratorium will expire on October 30, 2026. Staff intend to return to the City Council with municipal code amendments by Spring 2028.
REGIONAL CONTEXT AND FINDINGS
Recent activity in the San Francisco Bay Area confirms that the need for the moratorium is current and immediate. As of September 17, 2026, three nearby cities have approved major data center projects: the City of Pittsburg approved a project involving the AVAIO-affiliated Pittsburg Data Hub, LLC, and AVAIO Digital; the City of Hayward approved a project involving STACK Infrastructure; and the City of Gilroy approved a project involving Amazon Data Services. These approvals show that data center operators are actively securing sites in comparable Bay Area cities and could seek approval in Richmond during the City's study.
Bay Area cities are also using land use controls to respond to this development pressure. As of September 17, 2026, the Cities of Oakley, Gilroy, and Richmond have adopted temporary citywide moratoria on new data center development; the Cities of San Francisco and Oakland have moratorium proposals pending (both were recently adopted on October 6, 2026); and the City of Hayward has adopted enhanced review requirements for future projects rather than a moratorium.
The City has not identified any permanent citywide data center prohibition adopted by a Bay Area municipality. This range of approaches demonstrates that a temporary moratorium is a recognized and measured tool that jurisdictions may use while evaluating the appropriate regulatory framework for data center uses.
Based on the measures described above and the regional context, the City finds that there is a current and immediate threat to the public health, safety, or welfare. The City further finds that approving new data center permits or land use entitlements under the City's existing regulations, which do not adequately address the unique operational, infrastructure, environmental, and publicsafety characteristics and potential impacts of these uses, could contribute to or exacerbate that threat. A temporary moratorium is therefore necessary to allow the City to study these issues and determine whether additional or revised regulations are necessary to protect the public health, safety, and welfare.
The extension preserves the status quo and authorizes no development. It will not cause a direct physical change in the environment or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. The extension is therefore not a "project" under the California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") and, even if it were, is exempt under the common sense exemption because it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility it may have a significant effect on the environment. (Pub. Resources Code § 21065; Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14 §§ 15060(c)(2)-(3), 15061(b)(3), 15378.) OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC COMMENT: Members of the public may comment on the draft extension of the urgency ordinance at the City Council hearing to be held on October 20, 2026. The City must publish notice of that hearing under Government Code §65090.