Lawrence County IL two-year data center moratorium (2026)

Lawrence County, Ill. — TWO-YEAR MORATORIUM on data centers approved UNANIMOUSLY by the County Board, reported 2026-09-17. SCOPE IS SIZE-THRESHOLD: the temporary ban applies to ANY DATA CENTER FACILITY EXCEEDING 10,000 SQUARE FEET — the same threshold adopted at Bemidji MN one-year data center moratorium (2026) (which additionally caught crypto mining at any size). PURPOSE: to give local officials and residents time to study potential impacts, INFRASTRUCTURE DEMANDS and community effects before allowing projects to move forward. STATED RATIONALE IS EXPRESSLY PRECAUTIONARY, Chairman JIM BREWER: 'We did the moratorium so we as a board and the citizens could be better educated on problems or possibly benefits of data centers' and 'We don't know that, but I would rather put a moratorium on something that is unknown than let it go through.' NOTE THE CONSTRUCTION — Brewer does not assert harm; he asserts UNCERTAINTY and treats the burden of that uncertainty as falling on the project rather than the county. That is the precautionary principle applied to land use, and it is stated more plainly here than anywhere else in this dataset. DURATION IS THE FEATURE REQUIRING CARE: TWO YEARS is at the long end of the indexed range, where six to eighteen months is the norm (Steuben County IN six-month data center moratorium (2026) six months; ne-gage-county 12; Sauk County WI 18-month data center moratorium (2026) and Cary NC 18-month data center moratorium (2026) eighteen). This dataset records express statutory ceilings elsewhere — Minn. Stat. § 462.355 subd. 4 and § 394.34 (12 months), Wisconsin (12 plus one 6-month extension), Cal. Gov. Code § 65858 (45 days + 10mo15d + 1 year, two years aggregate). ILLINOIS COUNTY ZONING under 55 ILCS 5/5-12001 et seq. DOES NOT IMPOSE AN EQUIVALENT EXPRESS MORATORIUM CEILING, so the two-year term is NOT facially over a statutory limit; its defensibility, if challenged, would turn on the ordinary reasonableness and active-study showing. NO CHALLENGE IS REPORTED. expires_date IS COMPUTED as two years from the reported action and is NOT stated in the source. WHETHER THE MORATORIUM REACHES APPLICATIONS, PERMITS, REZONINGS OR CONSTRUCTION is characterised only as 'pausing new development' and 'a temporary ban' — the precise operative verbs are not given. ORDINANCE NUMBER AND VOTE COUNT (beyond 'unanimously') NOT OBTAINED.