Arcata CA 45-day data center moratorium (2026)

Arcata, Calif. (Humboldt County) — INTERIM URGENCY ORDINANCE establishing a 45-DAY MORATORIUM, adopted UNANIMOUSLY 5-0 by the City Council on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2026, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. OPERATIVE SCOPE, THREE VERBS: halts 'RECEIVING, PROCESSING, OR APPROVING ANY APPLICATION FOR A DATA CENTER LAND USE.' Barring RECEIPT is the strongest of the three and the one most often omitted — an application that cannot be filed cannot ripen, which forecloses the vested-rights exposure recorded at Rockford IL, Cle Elum WA, Salem, Lowell and, most acutely, Inver Grove Heights MN data center moratorium amended under lawsuit (2026), where a filed application became a $150 million damages demand that forced the city to amend its ordinance. Compare McDonald OH one-year data center moratorium (2026) ('accept, process or consider') and Marysville KS 12-month data center moratorium (2026) ('accepted, processed or approved'). STATED GROUNDS: LAND AVAILABILITY, RESOURCE USE, and THE ABSENCE OF A REGULATORY framework. Staff presented a presentation explaining the moratorium and its implications before the vote, and councilmembers were expressly informed that approval would mean IMMEDIATE effect. INSTRUMENT: the 'interim urgency ordinance' label plus the 45-day term and immediate effect identify CAL. GOV. CODE § 65858 — four-fifths vote required (5-0 satisfies it), 45 days initially, extendable once by 10 months 15 days and once more by 1 year, two years aggregate, each extension requiring notice, hearing and a written report on measures taken to alleviate the condition. THE HUMBOLDT COUNTY PAIRING IS THE ANALYTICALLY USEFUL PART. Eureka CA data center moratorium and 20,000 sq ft cap direction (2026) records EUREKA — roughly eight miles away in the same county and on the same constrained corner of the PG&E system — adopting its own 45-day moratorium about two weeks earlier and then directing staff to draft zoning admitting only data centers of 20,000 sq ft or less in industrial areas by conditional use permit. EUREKA'S PLANNING STAFF PUT THE BINDING CONSTRAINT ON THE RECORD: PG&E advised that ONE SUBSTATION SERVING EUREKA IS ALREADY AT CAPACITY and another has ABOUT 10 MW REMAINING, against a typical 2026 data center ask of 50-100 MW and 1,000+ MW for the largest AI campuses. THE SOURCE FOR ARCATA DOES NOT REPEAT THAT ANALYSIS and this entry does not attribute it to Arcata — but the shared grid geography is why 'land availability' and 'resource use' appear as Arcata's stated grounds, and the two entries should be read together. CALIFORNIA § 65858 COHORT, NOW FIVE IN ROUGHLY TWO WEEKS: Gilroy CA interim urgency data center moratorium (2026) (2026-09-14, unanimous), Richmond CA 45-day data center moratorium (2026) (2026-09-15), Marina CA 45-day data center moratorium (2026) (2026-09-15, unanimous), ca-eureka-... (~2026-09-02), and ARCATA (2026-09-16, 5-0) — plus Palm Springs Data Center Moratorium (2026) and Commerce CA 45-day data center urgency ordinance (2026) earlier. THE OPERATIVE QUESTION FOR ALL OF THEM IS THE SAME: § 65858 pauses expire in 45 days unless extended, so the meaningful test is which councils return to extend. expires_date 2026-10-31 IS COMPUTED as 45 days from adoption and is NOT stated in the source. ORDINANCE NUMBER NOT OBTAINED. WHETHER THE COUNCIL MADE THE § 65858 FINDINGS IS NOT REPORTED.