La Conner WA data center moratorium (2026)
La Conner, WA — Town Council Temporary Moratorium on Data Center Permit Applications (July 29, 2026)
La Conner, WA · Town of La Conner, Wash. — Temporary Data Center Moratorium (July 29, 2026)
- Status
- In effect
- Expires
- January 29, 2027
- Applies to
- Anyone seeking a data center permit within La Conner town limits; Town of La Conner planning and permitting staff.
- Enforced by
- Town of La Conner Planning Department
The La Conner Town Council approved a temporary moratorium on data center permit applications on July 29, 2026, running at least six months. La Conner had received no data center permit applications and nobody had even asked about submitting one — the pause is preemptive. Planning Director Ajah Eills said the moratorium 'allows the town to take a beat and really look at those regulations and whether or not any form of data center would ever be appropriate here, or if we should handle data centers in a more prohibitive way,' and pointed to the water demands of data centers and to impacts seen in other communities, which matter here because La Conner sits very close to a large water source. Town staff planned to draft an ordinance revising La Conner's land use regulations to address data centers during the pause. The town borrowed Skagit County's definition of a data center and modelled its moratorium language on the county's, which had taken effect for unincorporated Skagit County on June 1, 2026. A public hearing on the moratorium was scheduled for the August 25 council meeting.
Who is protected: La Conner residents and the surrounding Skagit Valley, through a preemptive pause on data center permitting while the town decides whether data centers are appropriate at all — with local water supply the explicit concern.
Legal detail
Town of La Conner, Wash. temporary moratorium on acceptance of data center permit applications within town limits, approved by Town Council July 29, 2026 for a term of at least six months. Adopted as an interim control in the pattern Washington's RCW 36.70A.390 prescribes — immediate effect on adoption with a public hearing to follow, here noticed for the August 25, 2026 council meeting. Definitional scope is borrowed from Skagit County's data center definition, and the operative language tracks the county moratorium covering unincorporated Skagit County effective June 1, 2026. No pending applications or pre-application inquiries existed at adoption, so the measure is preemptive rather than responsive. Remedial work during the term: staff to draft revisions to the town's land use regulations addressing data centers, with the stated options ranging from conditional allowance to outright prohibition. Ordinance number not obtained — the town website exposes no searchable ordinance index and council packets are not indexed for retrieval.
Key facts
| Jurisdiction | La Conner, WA |
|---|---|
| Level | City / local |
| Strength | Moderate |
| Enacted | July 29, 2026 |
| Citation | Town of La Conner, Wash. — Temporary Data Center Moratorium (July 29, 2026) |
| Private right of action | No, agency enforcement only |
| Penalties | Data center permit applications not accepted during the moratorium |
| Topics | data-center siting and energy · government use of AI |
| News report | La Conner Town Council approves temporary moratorium on data centers — Skagit Valley Herald (goskagit.com) |
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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