Hillsboro's data center moratorium is spreading. Portland's City Council voted 11-0 on Thursday, Sept. 17, to discourage secret deals with data center developers and pursue its own moratorium on hyperscale facilities, following the playbook Hillsboro wrote in July.
Resolution 37753, introduced by Councilors Tiffany Koyama Lane and Mitch Green, asks Portland's city administrator to stop signing nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) related to data center permitting and to notify the council of any incoming proposals. An amendment by Koyama Lane declares the council's intent to pursue a moratorium or zoning restrictions on hyperscale data centers "at the earliest time," according to KGW.
All 12 Portland councilors co-sponsored the measure, a first since the city switched to district-based representation, according to Koyama Lane's office. Councilor Loretta Smith was absent for the vote.
"This resolution at its core is about responsible, good governance, protecting how decisions get made in our city," Koyama Lane said at the Sept. 17 meeting, as reported by The Oregonian. "It's about transparency, and it's also about building and keeping public trust."
There is a catch. Portland city law treats NDAs as contracts, and the mayor and city administrator have the authority to enter contracts without council approval, The Oregonian reported. The resolution encourages but does not mandate that the city stop signing them.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson backed the measure, saying Portlanders should control decisions about data centers in their city, as reported by KGW.
The resolution landed after a 4-0 committee vote on Sept. 2, which Willamette Week first reported.
Why Hillsboro matters here
Hillsboro hosts 35 data centers, the most in Oregon, according to datacentermap.com figures cited by KGW. The city has 436 acres devoted to the industry, with 50 more under construction, serving Adobe, LinkedIn, Meta, TikTok and X. Those facilities are receiving $84 million in local property tax breaks this year, The Oregonian reported in July.
Public anger over 17 tax-break applications filed in May pushed the Hillsboro City Council to adopt its moratorium at a surprise meeting on July 27. Hillsboro appears to be the first Oregon city to have followed the state's formal land-use process for imposing such a pause, according to The Oregonian.
"The idea behind it was to prevent a rush of applications from data centers," Hillsboro Mayor Beach Pace said at the July 27 meeting, as The Oregonian reported.
Hillsboro's moratorium runs through about Nov. 24. The city's Planning Commission unanimously approved a permanent code amendment on Sept. 9, including a 1,000-foot buffer between data centers and schools, according to the city's data center page. As we reported Sept. 14, the City Council could adopt those new rules as early as Oct. 6.
What comes next in Portland
At least 10 sites in Portland could house a hyperscale data center, including Hayden Island and South Waterfront, according to Koyama Lane's office. One project is already in motion: Menlo Digital has filed plans to convert five stories of a downtown high-rise into data center space, The Oregonian reported. Because that permitting process is underway, the project might not be subject to any future moratorium.
Other Oregon communities have concluded that state land-use law requires 45 days' notice before a moratorium can take effect. Portland officials have not said how they plan to proceed, The Oregonian reported.
The political momentum extends beyond city halls. Gov. Tina Kotek and Sen. Christine Drazan, her Republican challenger, both endorsed a statewide data center moratorium in the week before Portland's vote, The Oregonian reported. A poll published in August found two-thirds of Oregon voters support a moratorium.
Advocacy groups including 350 PDX, Oregon Data Center Defiance and 1000 Friends of Oregon praised Portland's vote and called for a formal moratorium, KGW reported. Portland's next step is determining how quickly it can put one in place.
