Marysville council adopts six-month moratorium on new data centers

The Marysville City Council on July 13 voted to adopt Ordinance 3381, enacting an immediate six‑month moratorium on the acceptance, processing and approval of land‑use applications and permits for data centers whose principal use is digital data processing. City Administrator Stapleton presented the draft ordinance and said the pause will give staff time to finish utility master plans and rate studies that could inform permanent policy.

The moratorium defines “data center” as a building or group of buildings whose principal use is operation, storage, management, processing or transmission of digital data through servers or associated electronic equipment, while excluding incidental server rooms or accessory server uses. “If we receive an application today, this would halt processing so we can understand how large loads affect our water and electrical systems,” Stapleton said.

The ordinance drew sustained public comment. Michelle Stout urged the council to “take a good hard look at all large load facilities, period,” citing concerns about an Amazon operations facility she said would include a data room and large power and water demands. Julie Winchell pressed the council to go further, calling on elected officials to consider a ban on medium and large data centers and urging recusal for a council member she linked to developers. “Please pass a ban on data centers before that happens,” Winchell said. Mary O’Farrell also asked the council to pass the moratorium and suggested extending the 60‑day hearing window to allow more time for regulations.

Council members questioned how the draft would treat smaller, accessory server rooms and how size would be handled. Legal counsel Eggerson and city staff emphasized that the ordinance targets principal‑use data centers, not accessory servers within larger facilities, and noted the moratorium could be rescinded or shortened by future council action. “The language refers to any data center irrespective of size where the primary use is data center activity,” Eggerson said, adding that accessory uses tied to another primary business are carved out.

Councilors debated the scope but largely supported a cautious approach to prevent unanticipated strains on city utilities. Council member Richards said the moratorium gives the city “something in writing for our citizens and developers to know what they can and cannot do,” while Council member Norton said the pause shows the council intends to be thoughtful.

The council moved, seconded and adopted Ordinance 3381 by voice vote. The ordinance takes effect immediately; a public hearing required within 60 days was noted in the ordinance text, and staff said the council could extend or rescind the moratorium before the six months if it chose.

Next steps: staff will incorporate findings from ongoing water, wastewater and storm master‑planning work and related rate studies into any proposed permanent code changes; the council scheduled a public hearing tied to the moratorium timeline.