Mount Vernon WA six-month data center moratorium (2026)
Mount Vernon, Washington — Six-Month Moratorium on Data Center Applications Citing Water Use AND THE CITY'S HIGH FLOOD RISK, Joining Skagit County and La Conner (2026)
Mount Vernon, WA · City of Mount Vernon, Wash. — six-month data center application moratorium (approved 2026)
- Status
- In effect
- Expires
- February 14, 2027
- Applies to
- Applicants for data centers in Mount Vernon during the six-month moratorium
- Enforced by
- City of Mount Vernon Development Services / Mount Vernon City Council
Mount Vernon approved a SIX-MONTH moratorium on applications for data centers, joining other Skagit County municipalities in what local reporting called 'pumping the brakes.' Skagit County itself and the Town of La Conner had already made similar moves. The city had NO PENDING APPLICATIONS at the time; Councilmember Melissa Beaton said they were trying to get ahead of the curve — 'We're just kind of pumping the brakes a little bit, making sure we get this issue right, and that we hear from the community and understand all of the pros and cons.' The rationale is the reason this entry is worth having. Mount Vernon cited data centers' significant water use AND THE CITY'S HIGH FLOOD RISK. Flood risk is a rationale that appears nowhere else in this dataset, and it is a real and specific one for Mount Vernon, which sits on the Skagit River floodplain in northwest Washington. The concern is not the familiar one about a facility consuming scarce water; it is about siting critical, hard-to-relocate infrastructure with substantial backup fuel, battery storage and electrical equipment in a place that floods. That is a hazard-siting question rather than a resource-consumption question, and it suggests a line of analysis — floodplain exposure of data center infrastructure — that most of the jurisdictions in this dataset have not considered at all.
Who is protected: Mount Vernon, Washington residents in Skagit County; the Skagit River floodplain
Legal detail
City of Mount Vernon, Wash. (Skagit County) — SIX-MONTH MORATORIUM on applications for data centers, approved by the City Council on the 14th. POSTURE: the city had NO PENDING APPLICATIONS; Councilmember MELISSA BEATON stated the council was trying to get ahead of the curve, quoted as 'We're just kind of pumping the brakes a little bit, making sure we get this issue right, and that we hear from the community and understand all of the pros and cons.' STATED GROUNDS: data centers' SIGNIFICANT WATER USE and THE CITY'S HIGH FLOOD RISK. THE FLOOD-RISK RATIONALE IS UNIQUE IN THIS DATASET and is substantively distinct from the water objections recorded elsewhere. Every other water-based measure indexed here \u2014 Nye County NV data center ban in Basin 162 (2026) (over-appropriated basin), Patterson CA data center moratorium extension Ord. 890 (2026) (standing duty to reduce groundwater pumping), Tulare County CA data center moratorium (extended to Aug 2027) (SGMA obligations), Logan County KY 12-month data center moratorium (2026) (water supply capacity study) \u2014 concerns the facility CONSUMING water. Mount Vernon's concern is the inverse: WATER REACHING THE FACILITY. Mount Vernon lies on the Skagit River floodplain, and the siting question is whether critical, effectively non-relocatable infrastructure carrying substantial diesel or fuel storage, battery energy storage and high-voltage electrical equipment should be placed in a high-flood-hazard area at all. THAT IS A HAZARD-SITING ANALYSIS RATHER THAN A RESOURCE-CONSUMPTION ANALYSIS, and it implicates floodplain development regulation, critical-facility siting standards and, in Washington, Growth Management Act critical-areas provisions \u2014 a line of inquiry not visible in any other entry in this dataset and directly relevant to the many coastal and riverine jurisdictions indexed here. REGIONAL: Mount Vernon follows SKAGIT COUNTY and the Town of LA CONNER, neither of whose measures is separately indexed. Washington state separately regulates ALPRs under RCW 10.130 (Elma WA temporary ALPR moratorium (2026)) and Cle Elum adopted an emergency data center moratorium (Cle Elum WA emergency data center moratorium (2026)).
Key facts
| Jurisdiction | Mount Vernon, WA |
|---|---|
| Level | City / local |
| Strength | Moderate |
| Enacted | August 14, 2026 |
| Citation | City of Mount Vernon, Wash. — six-month data center application moratorium (approved 2026) |
| Private right of action | No, agency enforcement only |
| Penalties | Data center applications may not be accepted during the six-month moratorium |
| Topics | data-center siting and energy · consumer protection · government use of AI |
| News report | Mount Vernon adopts six-month moratorium on data centers — My Bellingham Now |
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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