Federal Way passes 1-year moratorium on data centers
Published 2:40 pm Wednesday, July 8, 2026
Federal Way joins Seattle, Burien and other Washington cities, which have passed similar moratoriums.
The Federal Way City Council has unanimously voted to put a 12-month moratorium on data centers.
Swiftly following the Pledge of Allegiance at the July 7 Federal Way City Council meeting, Council President Susan Honda presented a motion to add a new item to the agenda that would be “considered immediately,” titled “Ordinance Data Center Moratorium.”
The item was added and a presentation by Federal Way assistant city attorney Kent Van Alstyne was given to the council, explaining the purpose of data centers and other background information.
As of March 2026, an estimated 3,000 data centers are currently operating in the US, with an estimated 1,500 planned or under construction. Van Alstyne said that estimated statistics suggest that, by the year 2030, the number of US data centers will have doubled over the current number.
While data centers are used for the housing of computer and networking equipment and have been used in the past, the increased use of generative artificial intelligence, like ChatGPT, has required more data centers to be built as they are “critical to AI.”
Van Alstyne explained potentially deleterious affects that these data centers have on public health and the environment, due to “extreme amounts of power and water,” along with high noise levels, heat production and the possibility of “significant emissions if using fossil fuels,” visual and other aesthetic impacts.
The recent news that a large warehouse would eventually be built on the current Wild Waves site triggered a wave of public outcry and worry as residents worried that the large facility would be used for a data center.
In the Federal Way Mirror’s original reporting, a Geotechnical Report on the Podium I-5 project provided by Terra Associates Inc. stated that the project “will consist of redeveloping the site with a 1,033,680 square foot industrial building and associated access, parking, and utility improvements. The building will have dock high loading on the east and west sides with parking to the north, south and west.” The plans for high loading docks suggest that the warehouse would not be used for a data center.
“And I want to be really clear, we have not had any interest or any applications at this point to build a data center here,” said council president Honda before the vote. “Three of us [council members] spoke with Jeff Stock the other day and we asked him if he was interested in building a data center on the Wild Waste property and he said, ‘Absolutely not.’”
Honda explained that the former Weyerhaeuser campus owned by Industrial Realty Group (IRG) is set to potentially have “three new warehouses on it” and that the moratorium would give them time to protect the city.
“We’re doing this the right way by giving staff 12 months and the city council 12 months to study this and and come up with the right answer for the city,” Honda said of the moratorium and the consideration of updating City Code.
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“I think there’s a lot of discussions that have been taking place online within our community and and I know and I’ve read a lot of concerns about the possibility that could there be data centers. So I think this is a really good move for the city to take place, to study this and to come up with a plan and to place a moratorium on this,” said councilmember Martin Moore before the vote. “I’m really really supportive of this. I think it’s really, really important as there’s a lot of questionable aspects relating to data centers that I’m personally not comfortable with so I’m glad to see this measure take place here at the council dias.”
The moratorium on data centers does the following:
- Declares an emergency, enabling the moratorium to be effective immediately.
- Apply to data centers with a planned capacity in excess of 1 megawatt (mW) or exceeding 4,000 square feet of gross floor area.
- Last for 12 months.
- Prevent acceptance, processing and approval of all applications related to data centers.
- Prevent siting, creation or expansion of data centers city-wide.
- Direct establishment and performance of a staff work plan for study of data center use and consideration of potential amendments to City Code.
- Set a public hearing on the moratorium on Sept. 1, 2026.
For the full live stream video and transcript of the July 7, 2026 Federal Way City Council meeting, visit youtube.com/@FWYoutube.
