Walker County commissioners have approved an extension of the county’s moratorium on new data center development, delaying consideration of new projects until February 2027.
The board voted to extend the moratorium to 180 days, temporarily preventing the county from accepting new applications related to data center development while officials continue evaluating potential regulations.
Under the moratorium, the county will not accept applications involving the placement, construction, expansion or operation of data centers. The pause also applies to rezoning requests, land disturbance permits, building permits, business licenses, certificates of occupancy and other development approvals associated with such projects.
County officials say the temporary halt is intended to provide additional time to study the growing impact of data centers and determine whether changes to local development regulations are needed before new projects move forward.
According to the resolution, data centers are becoming increasingly common as demand continues to grow for artificial intelligence, cloud computing, data storage, streaming services and telecommunications infrastructure.
The moratorium will remain in effect for 180 days, with commissioners expected to revisit the issue in February 2027.