The Hayward City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to enact an immediate moratorium on

The Hayward City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to enact an immediate moratorium on consideration and approval of new data centers.

The moratorium responds to growing community concerns about data center construction and operations in Hayward and direction from Council members to explore ways to more closely monitor existing facilities and conduct additional analysis on the impacts that data center development may have on natural resources.

The moratorium enacted on Tuesday is intended to call a timeout to give City staff time to analyze the cumulative impacts of current and potential future data center development on energy and water supplies, air quality, industrial noise levels, City emergency response capacity and City economic development priorities.

Under state law, it can remain in place for up to two years while the City considers more lasting changes to related land-use and zoning ordinances and regulations.

Data centers are buildings designed and equipped for high-density computing and require dedicated uninterrupted power supplies and cooling systems. The advent and expansion of artificial intelligence is driving development of larger-scale and hyperscale data centers with ever increasing energy demands.

In Hayward, there are four existing and approved data centers near Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Eastern Substation in the southwestern portion of Hayward's industrial crescent on the City of Hayward's westside:

• A 24-megawatt (MW) facility called SF09 operating on a 10.9-acre site along Corporate Avenue.
• A 35-MW facility called SF11 operating on a 4.24-acre site also on Corporate Avenue.
• A 49-MW facility called Hayward Exchange @92 operating on 6.57 acres of a larger industrial campus along Clawiter Road near Breakwater Court.
• A 76.6-MW facility called Stack Data Center (SVY03A) under construction on an 11.3-acre site on Eden Landing Road.

Additionally, the City has been approached by a developer planning to submit applications for two new data centers that would operate each within a half mile of Hayward's existing data centers.