Federal Way passes emergency data center ban despite zero applications to build any
The Federal Way City Council unanimously passed a 12-month emergency moratorium on data centers, effective immediately. This ban was enacted despite no companies having applied or expressed interest in building such facilities in the city. The council plans to use this period to study the issue and draft potential code changes.
The Federal Way City Council in Washington state unanimously voted on July 7 to impose an emergency 12-month moratorium on data centers. This decision was made despite Council President Susan Honda acknowledging that no companies had applied or expressed interest in building data centers in Federal Way.
The emergency ordinance, which took effect immediately, blocks the city from accepting, processing, or approving any application for data centers over 1 megawatt or 4,000 square feet, and prohibits their siting or expansion citywide for a year. City staff are tasked with studying the issue and drafting potential code changes during this period, with a public hearing scheduled for September 1.
Honda cited online chatter and community concern, along with the possibility of new warehouses on the former Weyerhaeuser campus, as justification. Federal Way joins other Washington cities like Seattle, Spokane, and Burien in preemptively enacting data center prohibitions. The article contrasts this approach with Quincy, Washington, which leveraged data center tax revenue for public infrastructure, and notes that Seattle experienced construction job losses and utility rate hikes without new data centers to offset costs.