San Francisco Pauses New Data Centers for 45 Days

The measure is File No. 261021, an urgency ordinance titled “Interim Zoning Moratorium for Data Centers,” sponsored by Supervisor Shamann Walton with Supervisors Connie Chan, Jackie Fielder and Chyanne Chen. It adopts a citywide ban under California Government Code Section 65858 and states that “the City shall not issue any approval or authorization for Data Centers.” It borrows the definition from Senate Bill 887 (2025-2026): a facility, or part of one, that houses computing infrastructure including graphics and central processing units, servers, storage, networking and associated power and cooling “for the primary purpose of processing, storing, or distributing electronic data.” Two things are exempt: data centers that are accessory uses to another permitted use, and repair and maintenance of existing data centers that does not increase their size or capacity.

The ordinance runs 45 days unless extended under Section 65858 or replaced by permanent controls, and its own findings say that section allows extensions for up to 22 months and 15 days beyond the initial period. It takes effect on enactment, which happens when the mayor signs it, returns it unsigned, or lets ten days pass. The Planning Department owes the Clerk a written report within 25 days of enactment, and the Board must act on that report no later than 35 days after the effective date. PSV read the version amended in committee on October 5, 2026, as posted on DocumentCloud by the San Francisco Standard. PSV did not find the final enrolled text, so the dates below rely on press reports of the vote and signing.

The Standard reported that the Board approved the measure unanimously the week before and that Mayor Daniel Lurie signed it on October 16, 2026, the last day he could act before it took effect without his signature. If enactment was October 16, the 45 days compute to November 30, the Planning Department report to November 10, and the Board’s deadline to act on it to November 20. Those are PSV’s arithmetic from the ordinance text and the reported signing date, not dates the city has published. The mayor’s statement, as the Standard described it, did not use the words “data centers.”

The ordinance’s findings explain the gap it is closing. San Francisco has regulated data centers under a 2001 use category called an Internet Service Exchange, generally a conditional use, and the findings say several data centers have been approved mostly in Bayview and South of Market, and that officials receive inquiries about new ones regularly. Walton’s September 11 release says the current codes were written before today’s AI scale. One live test arrived within days: reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle, confirmed to NBC Bay Area by development consultants, says Maryland-based KG Growth Partners is exploring a confidential client’s purchase of the closed San Francisco Centre mall to convert upper floors into a data center and AI lab. Lurie said on October 19 that he was not aware of the proposal, the building is still for sale and there is no buyer. No application is on file, as far as PSV found.

The tool is a screen for any San Francisco property where a data hall, hosting use or large equipment room is in the business plan. Inputs are the plan’s use description, the megawatts and square footage of computing space, who the computing serves, the current zoning use category, and any pending permit. The output is a one-page status that sorts each computing area into accessory to the building’s main use, standalone hosting, or existing capacity, and lists the approvals each would need and the pause’s effect on them.

The reviewer is the land-use counsel or entitlement consultant, with the investment lead signing off on any underwriting assumption. The approval gate is that nobody records a space as accessory on the strength of this screen alone, since the ordinance leaves that call to the Planning Department. The screen does not predict what permanent controls will say.