Marina CA 45-day data center moratorium (2026)
Marina, California — City Council Unanimously Enacts a 45-Day Urgency Ordinance Barring Acceptance of Any Data Center Application, Expressly NOT Prompted by Any Current Application but Adopted to Prepare for Future Scenarios (September 2026)
Marina, CA · Marina, Cal. — 45-day interim urgency ordinance barring acceptance of data center applications, adopted unanimously September 15, 2026
- Status
- In effect
- Expires
- October 30, 2026
- Applies to
- Anyone seeking to file a data center application in Marina during the 45-day moratorium
- Enforced by
- Marina City Council; city planning department
The Marina City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday night, September 15, 2026 to enact a 45-day moratorium on new data centers, giving the city time to create policies and evaluate the potential effects of such facilities. During the moratorium no applications for data centers will be accepted. The council was explicit that the URGENCY ORDINANCE WAS NOT PROMPTED BY ANY CURRENT APPLICATION — it was adopted to prepare for future scenarios. That matters more than it sounds. A moratorium enacted while an application is pending invites a vested-rights fight, and this dataset records several pauses defeated exactly that way, most starkly in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, where a developer's suit forced the city to amend its ordinance to let the project through. Marina faces no such exposure. A resident speaking at the meeting expressed satisfaction with the decision and stressed the importance of having local discussions before higher levels of government intervene — which is the preemption anxiety running underneath a good deal of the local activity in this dataset. Forty-five days is the opening interval of a California interim urgency ordinance, not the likely total: state law lets a council extend it once by ten months and fifteen days and again by a year. The question for Marina, as for every other California city here, is whether it comes back to extend.
Who is protected: Marina residents in Monterey County, California
Legal detail
Marina, Calif. (Monterey County) — 45-DAY URGENCY ORDINANCE barring new data centers, enacted UNANIMOUSLY by the CITY COUNCIL on TUESDAY NIGHT, SEPTEMBER 15, 2026. OPERATIVE EFFECT: 'During the moratorium, NO APPLICATIONS FOR DATA CENTERS WILL BE ACCEPTED' — an acceptance bar, which stops the clock before an application can ripen into a vested interest, rather than merely withholding approval. INSTRUMENT: the source calls it an URGENCY ORDINANCE and gives a 45-day term, which identifies CAL. GOV. CODE § 65858 — interim urgency ordinance prohibiting uses in conflict with a contemplated zoning proposal, adopted by FOUR-FIFTHS VOTE, effective 45 DAYS, 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 unanimous vote satisfies the four-fifths requirement. PURPOSE: to allow time to CREATE POLICIES and EVALUATE THE POTENTIAL EFFECTS of data centers on the city. THE POSTURE IS THE STRONGEST AVAILABLE AND IS STATED EXPRESSLY: 'The urgency ordinance was NOT PROMPTED BY ANY CURRENT APPLICATIONS for data centers but was implemented to PREPARE FOR FUTURE SCENARIOS.' No pending application means no vested-rights exposure — the failure mode that defeated moratoria at Rockford IL (annexation agreement), Cle Elum WA (2002 development agreement), Salem (pre-filed application), Lowell (settlement) and Athens (site outside city limits), and that produced the litigation capitulation at Inver Grove Heights MN data center moratorium amended under lawsuit (2026). Same pre-emptive posture as Sauk County WI 18-month data center moratorium (2026), Woodburn OR 120-day data center moratorium (2026) and Latah County ID data center regulations (2026). PUBLIC COMMENT RECORDED: a Marina resident expressed satisfaction with the decision and 'stressed the importance of local discussions BEFORE HIGHER LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT INTERVENE' — the preemption anxiety that also surfaces in the federal material dispositioned in this sweep (Speaker Johnson's rejection of a federal AI moratorium; Rep. Tom Barrett's bill to bar federal intervention in local data center siting decisions). CALIFORNIA § 65858 COHORT, NOW SUBSTANTIAL: Gilroy CA interim urgency data center moratorium (2026) (45-day, unanimous, 2026-09-14), Richmond CA 45-day data center moratorium (2026) (45-day, 2026-09-15), Eureka CA data center moratorium and 20,000 sq ft cap direction (2026) (45-day, ~2026-09-02), Palm Springs Data Center Moratorium (2026). FOUR CALIFORNIA CITIES ADOPTED 45-DAY PAUSES WITHIN ROUGHLY TWO WEEKS. expires_date 2026-10-30 IS COMPUTED as 45 days from adoption and is NOT stated in the source. ORDINANCE NUMBER NOT OBTAINED; no vote tally beyond 'unanimously'.
Key facts
| Jurisdiction | Marina, CA |
|---|---|
| Level | City / local |
| Strength | Moderate |
| Enacted | September 15, 2026 |
| Citation | Marina, Cal. — 45-day interim urgency ordinance barring acceptance of data center applications, adopted unanimously September 15, 2026 |
| Private right of action | No, agency enforcement only |
| Penalties | No data center applications will be accepted during the moratorium |
| Topics | data-center siting and energy · consumer protection · government use of AI |
| News report | Marina City Council imposes 45-day moratorium on new data centers — KSBW (NBC, Salinas/Monterey) |
Related data-center siting and energy rules elsewhere
- Superior WI Data Center Moratorium (1-year) · In effect
- Dane County WI Hyperscale Data Center Moratorium · In effect
- Madison WI Data Center Moratorium (1-year) · In effect
- Manitowoc County WI Data Center Moratorium · In effect
- WA SB 5982 (Data Center / Clean Energy) · In effect
- Dayton OH data center moratorium (180-day, Apr 2026) · In effect
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