Tulsa City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to pause building new data centers for nine months.
The decision comes in the context of conflict between local officials who see the promise of economic development and residents who worry about the impact massive facilities will have on water and power resources.
District 4 Councilor Laura Bellis had initially requested a one-year moratorium, but amended it to nine months after pushback in a Wednesday afternoon committee meeting.
“Nine months was a reasonable compromise,” Bellis told the Flyer. “My biggest thing was our planning office has enough time to form recommendations for it to go through an official government process.”
Tulsa, with its relatively inexpensive energy, land and water, has become a hotbed of large data center development in the last year. The moratorium would exempt the first and second phase of Project Anthem in east Tulsa and wouldn’t affect Project Clydesdale, which is already being built in north Tulsa. The Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission is set to make a decision on Project Anthem’s second construction phase April 1.
A total of 19 people spoke during the public comment in favor of approving the moratorium. Some even traveled from outside of Tulsa city limits.
Discussions were held earlier Wednesday in a council committee meeting on what a potential moratorium for the city could mean.
“To me this is about being fact-based, not being fear-based and acknowledging this is an industry all around us,” Bellis said during the discussion.
District 8 Councilor Phil Lakin asked Bellis if the moratorium period could be cut to 90 days, with a possible chance to extend if certain findings are not concluded by an established date.
Lakin’s broader concern is setting a year-long moratorium could deter Tulsa’s chances of attracting businesses that benefit from hyperscale data centers and help the city’s economy.
“It allows us to give people time to do their work and if they don’t, we can extend it another time,” Lakin said to Bellis. “365 seems like a lot.”
Lori Decter Wright and Christian Bengel supported the nine-month moratorium during the afternoon work session.
District 3 Councilor Jackie Dutton said she was completely opposed to data centers coming to the city mainly because they are being placed in Tulsa’s more underserved communities. She said her district and Vanessa Hall-Harper’s north Tulsa district would suffer the most impact.
Dutton told the 19 speakers she would “support a moratorium indefinitely” if she had the opportunity.
“The economic data with data centers does not support that they are revenue generators for the city as a whole … we don’t know what the impact is for those local residents where the data center is going to be,” Dutton said.
Bellis spearheaded the moratorium effort after already initiating discussions on changing the city’s zoning code language for where data centers could be located. Councilors unanimously voted to start the process of assessing the city’s zoning code, a process that could take months. The moratorium is a more immediate step.
Data centers in the Tulsa area have been met by a large number of detractors. Planned projects in areas such as Sand Springs, Coweta and Claremore have led to vocal opposition, including protests and lawsuits.
Project Anthem in east Tulsa has created similar concerns, with the city’s planning commission delaying a vote after city staff recommended denying the zoning request.
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