The world's largest data center market just closed for a year

DevWatch | Data Center Development Watch | Presented by The Proper Group

What happened: On Oct 20 and 21, the Loudoun County, Virginia Board of Supervisors adopted the resolution formalizing its Sept 15 pause. Every legislative application that proposes or allows a data center or substation, 33 pending so far, is held for one year from its filing date while the county finishes Phase 2 of its Data Center Standards and Locations work, expected in 2027. Substations meeting grid reliability criteria can still advance, and by-right administrative cases are unaffected.

Why it matters: Loudoun is the largest data center market in the world, and it is now formally not taking new legislative applications. By-right land in Northern Virginia just became scarcer and more valuable, and the displaced demand does not disappear; it moves toward Richmond, Atlanta, Columbus, Indiana and the Carolinas. The statehouse is the next venue: SB 843 would bar state approval of data center planning applications for three years from July 2027. The governor has not backed it, but it is the first statewide moratorium bill in the largest market.

Who should care: Every Northern Virginia developer and landowner, land use attorneys, Dominion and PJM capacity planners, and economic development offices in every spillover market.

What to watch next: Phase 2 standards expected in 2027, with each application's 12-month clock running from filing. Virginia's 2027 General Assembly convenes in January with SB 843 waiting.

Source and confidence: LoudounNow, DCD. Likely; the adopted resolution is on this week's primary pull list.

What happened: On Oct 22, Google and Voltus added 1,070 MW to the 100 MW agreement they signed in June. Under the three-year deal, Voltus aggregates flexible capacity from businesses and homes into a Google-funded virtual power plant and delivers it as capacity supply in PJM, with participants paid.

Why it matters: This is the largest known distributed capacity portfolio funded by a hyperscaler, and it lands at exactly the scale FERC and PJM have been arguing about since FERC rejected PJM's curtail-first large-load plan on Oct 9. Rather than wait for curtailment rules to be written in the states, the grid's biggest new buyer is bringing its own supply. Expect the structure to be cited in every large-load tariff docket this winter.

Who should care: Every PJM utility and large-load applicant, demand response and VPP vendors, state commissions writing curtailment rules, capacity traders.

What to watch next: VPP capacity comes online from 2027. Watch whether other hyperscalers copy the structure, and whether commissions count it in tariff design.

Source and confidence: Company release, Oct 22. Confirmed.

What happened: On Oct 8, a vote that drew almost no coverage outside Austin, the Taylor city council approved 5-0 the annexation of the 664-acre Taylor Technology Campus from Big Watt Digital and PowerHouse Data Centers, with 28.2 million dollars in community commitments and water, noise, lighting and setback requirements that now sit inside city jurisdiction. The city projects 1.38 billion dollars in gross tax revenue over 20 years. First power is targeted for 2028.

Why it matters: After September's withdrawal and reroute, the developers came back with an annexation agreement instead of a rezoning fight, and it worked. The playbook is now proven: agreement first, jurisdiction second, with the community package as the price of entry. It will be copied, and opposition groups will study the counter. HALT Taylor remains opposed.

Who should care: ERCOT developers, civil and water engineering firms, Williamson County economic development, opposition organizers.

What to watch next: Development milestones under the annexation agreement, and the ERCOT audit concluding around Dec 10 that gates Batch Zero study processing statewide.

Source and confidence: CBS Austin, KUT. Likely.

What happened: In a settlement dated Oct 16, the Wisconsin DNR agreed to study the statewide effects of AI data centers on water, emissions, wildlife and energy, with Vantage funding the work and the study due by January 2028. The Sierra Club had sued in July over DNR permitting Vantage's Port Washington campus without a full environmental impact statement.

Why it matters: Wisconsin is the first state to convert a single project lawsuit into a statewide programmatic study. The template is portable: sue one permit, settle for a review that every later project must live with. Environmental groups in other states will read this settlement closely. Wisconsin stayed busy around it: Wisconsin Rapids rejected PNK Group's hyperscale permit 7-0 on Oct 20, and Madison took up its draft zoning framework Oct 27.

Who should care: Every Wisconsin developer and utility, environmental consultants, environmental litigators and AGs nationally.

What to watch next: The study's scope and milestones, due by January 2028; Madison’s next step on its zoning framework.

Source and confidence: Settlement reported via Fox 47 and the strisker daily notes; the settlement PDF is hosted by Midwest Environmental Advocates. Likely.

What happened: Four California cities moved against data centers in two weeks. Hawthorne extended its urgency moratorium through Sept 8, 2027 (Oct 13). San Francisco's mayor signed a 45-day pause as a developer asked about converting the former downtown Bloomingdale's (Oct 19). Richmond unanimously extended its pause to Sept 15, 2028, with no application pending (Oct 20). And San Diego's mayor signed a moratorium Oct 23 after Manchester Financial Group floated a 400 MW data center on the 70-acre NAVWAR site, which would be the largest in the state; the city council took it up Oct 26, with staff given 180 days for recommendations.

Why it matters: California was never a Tier 1 build market, but it is becoming the moratorium epicenter: 13 California cities and three counties now hold temporary pauses, with Coachella and Calexico permanent, per Richmond Confidential's count. The pattern is urban and preemptive; Richmond and San Diego acted on zero or speculative applications. Note what triggered the two big-city pauses: adaptive reuse of a department store and a Navy redevelopment site. Urban conversions now carry immediate political risk everywhere, which matters for everyone holding distressed downtown assets.

Who should care: Adaptive reuse developers, CRE brokers with distressed urban portfolios, CAISO watchers, and city policy staff nationwide who copy California ordinances.

What to watch next: San Diego’s 180-day staff clock; San Francisco's 45-day clock.

Source and confidence: KPBS, Richmond Confidential, Patch. Likely for San Diego, Richmond and Hawthorne; Watch for San Francisco (single source citing the SF Chronicle).

Every project in this issue lives or dies on a local decision. The Proper Group's Civic and Economic Development practice puts seasoned operators beside municipalities and developers to build siting frameworks, earn community trust and get from rezoning to ribbon cutting. Interim and fractional leadership from a bench of 200 executives nationwide.

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Mid-Atlantic: Loudoun's freeze (Signal 1) sets the year; SB 843's statewide three-year pause bill waits for January's session. Pennsylvania townships keep writing rules: Somerset County adopted a 1,000 ft setback, South Annville adopted decommissioning and community benefit requirements, and Concord Township could adopt utility-power-only zoning Nov 4. Voltus angle: PJM East is where the 1 GW of VPP capacity lands first.

Southeast: The Southaven stormwater penalty disclosure (Market Moves) lands amid Memphis's 135-day construction halt from Oct 21. Volusia County made its 50 MW ban final Oct 20, Guilford County NC weighs a 180-day pause, and South Carolina lawmakers are drafting state regulation. Voltus angle: non-RTO utilities can demand the same bring-your-own structure bilaterally.

Texas and South Central: Taylor's annexation (Signal 3) is the proof case. Inside Climate News and FracTracker report TCEQ kept advancing data center permits during the Abbott pause (Oct 19); the ERCOT audit concluding around Dec 10 is the date that decides how much the pause ever bit. Little Rock's moratorium failed 4-4 a second time on Oct 20. Voltus angle: whether bring-your-own-capacity gets replicated without a capacity market is ERCOT's open question.

Midwest and Ohio Valley: The Wisconsin settlement (Signal 4) leads. Meta detailed its Prometheus campus in New Albany, Ohio with the first phase live and a 1 GW target (Project Watch). Lexington, Kentucky adopted a standalone data center zoning category Oct 22, moratorium through Oct 2027. Sioux County, Iowa had its final reading set for Oct 27 on the ordinance that would lift its moratorium. Voltus angle: a template for AEP Ohio tariff-phase loads to bring capacity instead of waiting.

Mountain and Southwest: Boulder City, Nevada votes Nov 3 on making data centers an approved use in the Eldorado Valley Transfer Area, the first enabling measure in Ballot Watch. A Texas company withdrew its Henderson, Nevada hyperscale and gas plant project (Watch). Grant County, New Mexico enacted a one-year moratorium. Voltus angle: WECC and CAISO VPP rules become the next venue.

West and Pacific Northwest: California's city-by-city wave (Signal 5). In Oregon, Umatilla declared a local state of emergency Oct 23 over the governor's permit freeze, citing more than 5 billion dollars in delayed investment and about 6 million dollars in direct losses: the first open revolt by a host city against a state pause, and a reminder that pause politics cut both ways. Voltus angle: CAISO VPP rules are the next venue for bring-your-own structures out west.

Meta Prometheus, New Albany OH. Reality Score 95. Opposition Risk: None. Stage move: Meta publicly detailed the campus Oct 23 with the first phase operating, hundreds of thousands of GPUs across interconnected buildings, and a stated path to 1 GW. Land, zoning, power, permits, end user and construction are all in evidence for the operating phase; full-build power commitments are not public, which is the missing 5. DCD. Likely.

Taylor Technology Campus, Taylor TX. Reality Score 40. Opposition Risk: Active. Stage move: annexation approved 5-0 on Oct 8 (Signal 3). Land 15, annexation 15, incentives 10; no public power commitment, air permit or named end user yet. HALT Taylor remains organized.

Microsoft Mount Pleasant, WI. Reality Score 75. Opposition Risk: Forming. Stage move: the Plan Commission approved the revised plan Oct 14, seven buildings and more than 5.8 million sq ft, up from 5.2 million across nine, with a noise mitigation condition added after a resident lawsuit in July. The Village Board's vote could not be verified by press time. WPR. Likely.

TerraWatt Riverbend, Alton IL. Reality Score 10. Opposition Risk: None yet. New entrant: TerraWatt holds a contingent agreement to buy the closed Alton Steel mill, 381 acres, for up to 1 GW in 200 MW blocks. The sale closes in 2027 only after a city use determination and rezoning, an Ameren Illinois study and due diligence; no lease is signed. Partial land control is the only point on the board, which is the honest read of most 1 GW press releases. DCD, Oct 23. Likely.

AEP reported Q3 on Oct 28. The number to check is the contracted-load update against Q2's 69 GW through 2030, about 12 GW of it in Ohio. FirstEnergy reported Oct 27 and Microsoft and Alphabet Oct 28; Duke Energy reports Nov 5.

EEI refreshed its large-load tariff list in October. September's count: 25 states approved, 7 pending, 200+ projects, 71 GW. New counts are on the verify list; the delta is the story.

ERCOT's audit concludes around Dec 10, after which Texas Batch Zero study processing resumes. Between now and then, the FracTracker finding that TCEQ never stopped permitting is the live question in Austin.

MZX Tech, SpaceXAI's parent, disclosed in its quarterly SEC filing on Oct 22 that the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is seeking civil penalties of up to 25,000 dollars per day, about 6.1 million dollars claimed so far, for disturbing land at three Southaven sites without stormwater permits. Notices of violation went out in August; the company says it is negotiating a single agreed order. Separately, a federal judge declined to end the NAACP's Clean Air Act suit over the Stanton Road turbines. Build-first speed is now producing enforcement exposure disclosed to shareholders. DeSoto Times-Tribune. Likely; the filing is the primary pull.

The rulebook keeps replacing the pause. Lexington, Kentucky adopted a standalone data center zoning category unanimously Oct 22 and removed data centers as a primary use in six categories, so every project now needs a zone change; its moratorium runs through Oct 2027. That joins Montgomery County TN, Somerset County PA, South Annville and Concord Townships PA, Sioux County IA, Utah County UT and Madison WI in October alone. WUKY. Likely.

Volusia County, Florida made it a ban, not a pause: the council's final vote Oct 20 bars data centers with anticipated peak load of 50 MW or more in unincorporated areas. WDBO. Likely. Grant County, New Mexico enacted a one-year moratorium the same week. Albuquerque Journal. Likely.

TerraWatt, a recently formed developer, signed the contingent purchase of the closed Alton Steel mill in Illinois (Project Watch). Steel mills now join malls and Navy yards in the adaptive reuse siting wave.

Manchester Financial Group floated a 400 MW data center as one option for San Diego's NAVWAR redevelopment; its CEO says nothing is finalized and no agreements are in place. The float alone produced a citywide moratorium in nine days (Signal 5).

A Texas company withdrew its hyperscale data center and gas plant on federal land near Henderson, Nevada. Watch; single source.

Nov 3 is the first national election night for data center land use. Ohio anchors it with 18 or more communities voting on data center measures, including Trenton's charter question capping new loads at 25 MW, with the AWS annexation paused until the result, and Champaign County's ban question while Urbana continues litigating with Thor Equities; the Urbana council also meets Nov 3. Boulder City, Nevada runs the night's first enabling measure: voters decide whether data centers become an approved use in the Eldorado Valley Transfer Area, against water, power and tortoise-habitat objections. Results and the so-what land in next week's issue.

DevWatch is presented by The Proper Group. Editorial decisions are independent.

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