Moratorium: A temporary suspension or authorized delay of a specific activity, law, or legal obligation.
What We Know: At a special meeting on Monday morning, Springfield City Council members voted to pass a 120-day administrative moratorium on data centers. The bill’s wording explains: “provide the City with the opportunity to gather information, evaluate best practices, engage stakeholders and establish a transparent and predictable framework for future projects.”
In addition there will be recommendations concerning zoning, infrastructure concerns, operational requirements and community benefit expectations.
Greene county already has a data center 85 feet underground, the Bluebird Fiber Underground Data Center, located in the Springfield Underground.
There are approximately 18 Missouri counties who are actively working on implementing moratoriums to pause data center development.
What’s The Problem: Missouri residents in general, and Ozarks residents specifically, are quite right to be concerned. Data Centers are currently being developed at a rapid pace across the nation fueling massive expansion in energy and water demand. The biggest objection to Data Centers is the massive strain on local resources, specifically electricity and water, and as AI expansion drives the demand, local communities, such as the Ozarks, are increasingly resisting these developments.
What It Means: Communities around Data Centers see rising electric rates, enormous water usage, public handouts in the form of tax breaks going to Data Center developers, and these centers bring in no meaningful economic development in the form of jobs.
Regulations and restrictions are a MUST HAVE in all communities considering the building of a Data Center.
What’s Next: The future technology of Data Centers is unlike anything we’ve seen, and that future is in large part being decided now. Like it or not this “AI powered” future is inevitable.
Right now the moratorium is set to expire November 17th, 2026.
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