Oakland Weighs Data Center Moratorium as Opposition Mounts
Oakland City Council is facing strong public opposition to new data centers, particularly a project by Behring Companies. Councilmember Carroll Fife has proposed an urgency ordinance for a temporary moratorium on data center approvals, following similar actions by the Hayward and Richmond city councils.
More than 70 speakers expressed strong opposition to data centers at a recent Oakland City Council meeting, despite the issue not being on the official agenda. Public commenters urged the council to implement a halt on new projects. This backlash follows a proposal by Behring Companies to convert 20,000 square feet of an 83,000-square-foot building at 415 20th St. in downtown Oakland into a data center, forming part of a larger artificial intelligence and innovation campus. The site, previously a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory supercomputing facility, already possesses significant power infrastructure. Behring Companies has disputed the characterization of its project as a conventional data center.
The issue is set for a formal discussion next Tuesday at the council’s Life Enrichment Committee, chaired by Councilmember Carroll Fife. Councilmember Fife is advocating for an urgency ordinance to enact a temporary moratorium on city approvals for land-use entitlements and agreements related to data center development and operation. Should this measure pass the committee and subsequently be adopted by the full council as an urgency item, it would take immediate effect. Fife's proposal highlights that Oakland's current planning code has not kept pace with the rapid expansion and evolving nature of data centers, necessitating a pause for regulatory review.
Oakland is not isolated in this trend; on the same day, the Hayward City Council instructed its staff to develop options for a data center moratorium. Concurrently, the Richmond City Council approved its own 45-day moratorium on new data center developments.