The data center fight in Marshalltown, Iowa
As of October 1, 2026, Marshalltown, Iowa has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Aug 24, 2026; documented end date 2026-11-23).
Status is derived, not stored — a pause with a documented end date flips to Expired on its own — and the source is right next to the claim.
Status today
Ordinance 15123 signed Aug 24; 5-2 vote. Moratorium runs through Nov 23, 2026, extendable up to 60 additional days. Council previously voted down a 6-month moratorium in Jun.
SourceOfficial
read 2026-09-11
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
Recent news
5 stories tracked since 2026-08-12 across 5 outlets. 2× Local officials are moving to pause or block the project. 2× A community is pushing back on a nearby data center. Most recent: “Data center developer is ready to ride out Marshalltown’s moratorium” (Radio Iowa, 2026-09-16).
- Data center developer is ready to ride out Marshalltown’s moratorium
- Marshalltown residents voice data center questions during well-attended community roundtable
- Marshalltown residents raise concerns over potential data center development
- Marshalltown seeks public input on potential data center regulations
- Marshalltown city council passes first reading of data center moratorium
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 5 headlines archived.
What to do next
- Questions to ask at the hearing — force specific answers onto the record.
- Estimate the impact — electricity, water, and rate pressure for any facility size in Iowa.
- Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
- Iowa briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.
Nearby in Iowa
- Marshall County (5 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Buchanan County (62 mi) — Enactedfixed term, end date not recorded
- Linn County (67 mi) — Enactedexpires 2028-01-01
- Johnson County (73 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-11-08
- Madison County (76 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-07-22
- Clarke County (84 mi) — Enactedno fixed end — runs until a condition is met
- Mitchell County (85 mi) — Enactedexpires 2026-12-31
- Jefferson County (86 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-08-11
All 21 tracked actions in Iowa are on the state page.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
Part of the U.S. data center moratorium tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0.