The data center fight in Gilroy, California
As of October 1, 2026, Gilroy, California has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Sep 14, 2026; documented end date 2026-10-29).
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
Council unanimously adopted a 45-day urgency moratorium, effective immediately, barring the city from accepting, processing or approving applications and entitlements for new data centers while it drafts zoning and operating standards. Does not affect the approved Amazon facility under construction in northeast Gilroy. May be extended to a two-year maximum
SourceNews
read 2026-09-29
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
Recent news
8 stories tracked since 2026-08-07 across 5 outlets. 4× Local officials are moving to pause or block the project. 4× A community is pushing back on a nearby data center. Most recent: “Gilroy council approves temporary ban on new data centers” (San José Spotlight, 2026-09-16).
- Gilroy council approves temporary ban on new data centers
- Gilroy considers data center moratorium amid backlash over Amazon project
- Gilroy to vote on pausing new data center development
- Gilroy considers moratorium on new data centers
- Gilroy considers moratorium on new data centers
- Amazon data center project in Gilroy upsets locals
- Amazon circumvents community vote for massive AI data center using 45-year-old rules — Gilroy residents locked out of public comment window
- How Amazon Built a Data Center in a California Town Without Anyone Noticing
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 8 headlines archived.
Where the decision gets made
City Council — Zoning and land use (7 members, charter city). Amazon is building a ~49 MW data center on 56 acres under a 1981 industrial zoning — approved at staff level with no council vote or Planning Commission review. The 45-day CEQA comment window (Aug-Sep 2024) closed before most residents learned of the project.
Meets: 1st and 3rd Monday of the month, 6:00 p.m.
Where: City Council Chambers, 7351 Rosanna Street, Gilroy, CA 95020
Public comment: In-person: up to 3 min (scaled to 2 or 1 min for 11+ or 20+ speakers). Zoom participation available. Written comments to publiccomments@cityofgilroy.org by 1:00 p.m. on the meeting date.
publiccomments@cityofgilroy.org · 408-846-0204 · website
Read from the official page on 2026-08-12. Meeting details change — confirm before you go.
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 California.
- Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
- California briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.
Nearby in California
- Morgan Hill (10 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-10
- Patterson (40 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-07-15
- San Joaquin County (67 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Oakley (69 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-04-14
- Richmond (77 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-30
- Calaveras County (95 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-09
- Tulare County (136 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-02
- Mendocino County (193 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-16
All 26 tracked actions in California 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.