Salem OR 120-day data center moratorium (Res. 2026-40)

City of Salem, Ore. (Marion County) — City Council vote of August 3, 2026, taken unanimously at a SPECIAL MEETING after largely opposed public testimony, to BEGIN THE PROCESS for a temporary moratorium on data center applications. PROCEDURAL POSTURE — NOT IN EFFECT: Oregon land use law requires notice to the DEPARTMENT OF LAND CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT (DLCD) in advance of a moratorium; city staff expected to send the 45-DAY NOTICE no later than August 10, 2026. Contemporaneous reporting stated expressly that no moratorium was then in effect. status is therefore `proposed` and effective_date is null. THE APPLICATION-TIMING PROBLEM: VERRUS, a California company, submitted its application for the OAKLINE AT MILL CREEK data center immediately before the council meeting. Reporting at the time held that the moratorium may not apply to it — Salem Business Journal: 'Salem Council Starts Data Center Moratorium, but the Vote May Not Reach the Project That Prompted It.' Under Oregon's goal-post rule (ORS 227.178), a complete application is generally reviewed under the standards in effect when it was submitted, which is the mechanism by which a pre-filed application survives a later moratorium — the same structural limit visible in Rockford IL six-month data center moratorium (2026), there arising from an annexation agreement rather than an application filing. STATE-LAND CONNECTION: Mill Creek Corporate Center is the site where Gov. Kotek blocked the sale of 32 acres of state land proposed for a data center (Oregon state-land data center transaction pause (2026)); reporting on 2026-08-01 described the data company advancing its Salem plan by REPLACING the state land in its proposal, i.e. routing around the state-level block. UNRESOLVED AS OF THIS ENTRY: Council was scheduled to receive moratorium updates on Monday, September 14, 2026 — one day before verification — and that outcome is not captured. [2026-10-01] ADOPTED: Resolution No. 2026-40, adopted unanimously Mon. Sept. 21, 2026 (7 in favor incl. Mayor Julie Hoy; Gwyn and Vang absent). Effective Sept. 21, 2026; expires Jan. 19, 2027 unless extended (date stated by Salem Business Journal; KPTV: 'until Jan. 19'). Extension up to six months permitted after additional public hearing and written findings; KPTV says council will consider extension in January. Scope: all data centers operating as a primary use regardless of size/capacity/purpose, plus accessory data centers >2 MW facility capacity with PUE >1.5. City Attorney Dan Atchison: pending Verrus Oakline at Mill Creek application must continue to be processed but construction/development can be prohibited during the moratorium. Data Center Task Force recommendations expected Dec. 7, 2026. The earlier 'NOT IN EFFECT / status proposed' text above describes the August 2026 posture and is superseded.