Santa Fe County adopts 18-month moratorium on data-center development
Santa Fe County commissioners unanimously adopted an 18-month moratorium on data-center development July 2, immediately pausing the issuance of new development permits while county staff work on permanent regulations.
The county action applies to data-center development within Santa Fe County. It is a temporary permitting pause, not the county’s final regulatory framework for the facilities.
Smaller projects now fall under the pause
The adopted ordinance lowered the threshold covered by the moratorium to 1 megawatt, down from a previously proposed 100-megawatt threshold. The county describes 1 megawatt as roughly equivalent to the electricity use of 1,000 homes.
That change brings substantially smaller proposed data centers within the county’s review than the earlier 100-megawatt proposal would have covered. The 18-month moratorium took effect after the commission adopted it.
The immediate result is that new data-center development permits are on hold during the period covered by the ordinance. The action does not establish a statewide restriction on data centers in New Mexico.
County to develop permanent standards
County staff have been directed to develop permanent rules for data-center development. The work is expected to address water use, energy demand, noise and related impacts associated with proposed facilities.
The ordinance also includes environmental-justice and cumulative-impact protections, as well as monitoring and reporting provisions. Those elements place water, electricity, noise and broader environmental review among the issues to be considered as the county develops its longer-term approach.
The final requirements for data-center development had not been adopted when the county announced the moratorium. As a result, the commission’s July 2 vote establishes the temporary pause and the scope of the county’s work, rather than final operating or land-use standards for future projects.
Reports required during the 18-month period
The county must provide progress reports at least twice during the moratorium. Those reports are the next identified public milestones while staff prepare the permanent regulatory framework.
For developers proposing new data centers, the lower 1-megawatt threshold means projects that would not have met the earlier 100-megawatt proposal are now within the moratorium’s coverage. For Santa Fe-area residents and other interested parties, the forthcoming rulemaking will determine what permanent requirements follow the temporary pause.
The approved information does not establish whether any already-approved project is affected. It also does not say that the moratorium cancels approved projects; its confirmed immediate effect is the pause on new data-center development permits in Santa Fe County.
Sources
- Santa Fe County approves 18-month moratorium on data centers, Santa Fe County
- Santa Fe County becomes latest New Mexico community to adopt data center moratorium, Source New Mexico
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