A 135-day temporary pause bars the City from accepting, processing, hearing, approving, issuing, or granting most new data-center applications, permits, and land-use or development approvals. The pause ends earlier if permanent standards take effect and cannot be administratively extended. temporary pause

The temporary pause does not apply where it would unlawfully impair vested property rights, previously granted entitlements, legally protected preexisting applications, or other rights protected by Tennessee or federal law. It also allows protected work under existing permits, ordinary repairs, emergency corrections, and work required by governmental order. exemptions and vested rights

Every new data center, conversion, campus, phased project, and expansion must obtain all applicable zoning, land-use, site-plan, building, utility, environmental, and other approvals, and cannot be approved without demonstrating compliance with the ordinance. development approval required

A large data center is defined as one with projected electrical demand of at least 20 megawatts or one designed to reach at least 20 megawatts within 10 years, subjecting those facilities to the ordinance's large-data-center requirements. 20 megawatts

Applicants must disclose the property's maximum reasonably anticipated buildout, including ultimate building area, electrical demand, computing capacity, cooling systems, water demand and sources, wastewater, backup generation, battery storage, renewable procurement, carbon-based electricity, and future phases. Projects may not avoid the requirements by dividing a campus among buildings, owners, applications, phases, or permits. ultimate development disclosure

All new data centers must use closed-loop cooling that continuously circulates and reuses water without routine evaporative consumption. Once-through, open-loop, routine evaporative cooling towers, and routine cooling-water blowdown or discharge are prohibited, subject only to limited City Engineer approval for system safety or maintenance. closed-loop cooling required

Routine cooling may not use groundwater, surface water, municipal drinking water, aquifer water, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, or other local water resources when the withdrawal is a major water withdrawal. New private wells for primary cooling are prohibited, and diversions from listed local resources require legal authorization, separate City approval, and public review. major local water withdrawals

Routine cooling cannot use treated potable water from the City's public water system except for initial filling of an approved closed loop, unavoidable losses, emergencies, necessary maintenance, or another expressly approved use. Intentional evaporative cooling with potable water is prohibited. potable water restrictions

Applicants must submit a professional-engineer-certified Water Conservation and Resource Protection Plan covering cooling specifications, water demand and sources, anti-evaporation and anti-discharge procedures, leak detection, metering, recycling, emergencies, and wastewater management. Water Conservation and Resource Protection Plan

Data centers must install separate meters for total facility water, cooling water, makeup water, non-cooling water, and, where feasible, wastewater discharge, and must submit annual reports on water consumption, sources, losses, discharges, and emergency withdrawals. separate water metering

New data centers must match at least 60% of annual electricity consumption with qualifying renewable or non-carbon electricity at commercial operation, 75% after three years, 90% after six years, and 100% after ten years. renewable energy schedule

New data centers may not exceed annual carbon-based electricity limits of 40% in years 1–3, 25% in years 4–6, 10% in years 7–9, and 0% beginning in year 10. carbon-based electricity limits

Fossil-fuel backup generators may operate only for outages, declared emergencies, required testing, maintenance, protection of life or critical equipment, or utility or governmental emergency requirements; they cannot be the routine primary supply, and new facilities must evaluate battery and renewable backup alternatives. fossil-fuel generator limits

An expansion increasing electrical demand by 20% or more must be reviewed as a new large data center. Expansions increasing water demand, cooling equipment replacements, and phased expansions must comply with the ordinance and cannot avoid its requirements through phasing. expansion threshold

Existing lawfully operating data centers must submit specified water, cooling, electricity, renewable-energy, generator, maximum-demand, and expansion-plan information within 12 months after the ordinance's effective date; major expansions require compliance with the ordinance. existing data-center reporting

Applicants must identify and, to the extent permitted by law, bear incremental electrical infrastructure costs attributable to the proposed development, and must document anticipated electrical infrastructure requirements. electrical infrastructure costs

Before approval of a large data center, the applicant must provide a Grid and Energy Impact Statement covering demand, consumption, peak load, interconnection, renewable procurement, storage, carbon-based electricity, infrastructure needs, and available-service information from the serving utility where lawfully obtainable. Grid and Energy Impact Statement

Compliance is a condition of zoning, site-plan, special-use, building-permit, certificate-of-occupancy, material-expansion, and other development approvals. Violations may result in notices, civil penalties, permit suspension, denial of expansions, revocation where authorized, injunctions, and enforcement-cost recovery. permit condition and enforcement

The proposed permanent UDC amendments must establish data-center classifications and determine where each classification is prohibited, allowed subject to standards, or allowed only after Special Use Approval or another authorized land-use review. The proposed standards may address residential separation, sensitive resources, setbacks, buffers, noise, generators, substations, cooling equipment, access, and phasing. location and siting standards

Lawfully operating data centers may continue their existing operations after the regulation takes effect, subject to existing law. Existing Data Centers lawfully operating before the effective date ... may continue their lawful operations.

The temporary moratorium does not apply where it would unlawfully impair vested property rights, previously granted entitlements, legally protected applications, or other rights protected by state or federal law. The temporary pause shall not apply to the extent application of the pause would unlawfully impair a vested property right.

Projects with valid permits or development approvals issued before the moratorium may continue to the extent protected by law, including projects that had commenced before the ordinance took effect. work authorized by a valid permit or development approval issued before the effective date.

The moratorium allows ordinary repair and maintenance of lawfully established existing data centers. ordinary repair or maintenance of a lawfully established existing data center.

The moratorium allows permits and work needed to address immediate health, life-safety, fire, structural, environmental, or emergency conditions, as well as work required by a governmental order. permits required solely to correct an immediate health, life-safety, fire, structural, environmental, or emergency condition.

The moratorium is time-limited: it ends after 135 days or earlier when permanent data-center land-use and siting ordinances become effective, and it cannot be administratively extended. The pause shall not be administratively extended beyond the 135-day period.

The interim moratorium definition excludes ordinary server rooms, telecommunications equipment rooms, network closets, and similar accessory computing equipment, so those incidental installations are not treated as new data centers for the pause. The term shall not include an ordinary server room.

The permanent-regulation process is required to create a distinct data-center classification, identify applicable zoning districts, and establish approval mechanisms through which data centers may be permitted. proposed data-center use classifications and applicable land-use approval mechanisms.

The data-center text amendment must be prepared and initiated within 90 days, and completion of the broader UDC update cannot delay that targeted amendment. Completion of the broader Unified Development Code update shall not be a prerequisite.

Applicants may be able to rely on information already submitted to another public entity, reducing duplicative disclosure work, when the information has already been provided or evaluated by an agency with jurisdiction. the proposed UDC amendment shall establish disclosure requirements and DPD may coordinate with such entities to obtain and consider information already submitted.

Closed-loop cooling systems may use limited potable water for initial filling, unavoidable losses, emergencies, maintenance, or another City-approved use. initial filling of an approved closed-loop cooling system.

A data center may use a major local water withdrawal for routine cooling if it receives express legal authorization and separate City approval following public review; the prohibition is not absolute in that circumstance. unless expressly authorized by applicable law and separately approved by the City following a public review.

The regulation permits several non-evaporative cooling technologies, including air cooling, dry cooling, direct-to-chip cooling, rear-door heat exchangers, immersion cooling, and closed-circuit cooling. Acceptable cooling technologies may include.

Fossil-fuel backup generators may operate during outages, declared emergencies, required testing, maintenance, equipment-protection events, or when required by utilities or emergency authorities. Fossil-fuel generators may operate only.

Carbon-based backup-generator use for emergency response, legally required testing, maintenance, or grid emergencies is excluded from the limits on routine carbon-based electricity consumption. shall not be considered routine electricity sources.

Renewable-energy compliance may be met through multiple procurement methods, including onsite generation, utility programs, long-term power-purchase agreements, community programs, and legally recognized retired renewable-energy certificates. Qualifying renewable electricity may include electricity generated from.

A temporary 135-day pause prohibits new data-center applications and specified City approvals, beginning when the ordinance takes effect and ending at 11:59 p.m. on the 135th calendar day, unless permanent regulations take effect sooner. The pause cannot be administratively extended. temporary pause

During the pause, City departments, boards, commissions, officers, and employees may not formally accept, process, schedule for hearing, hear, approve, issue, or grant new applications, permits, or land-use or development approvals for establishing or constructing a new data center. no City department

The pause covers zoning changes, special-use or other discretionary approvals, site-plan and development-plan approvals, grading approvals, building permits authorizing construction, and other City development approvals determined legally subject to the pause. Covered applications and approvals include

The pause does not apply where it would unlawfully impair vested property rights, previously granted entitlements, legally protected applications submitted before the effective date, or other rights protected by Tennessee or federal law. It also allows certain preexisting permitted work, ordinary repairs and maintenance, emergency or legally ordered work, and other activity the Law Division determines must be allowed. shall not apply

The ordinance requires DPD to develop a distinct data-center use classification, potentially including separate classifications based on electrical demand, water demand, building size, acreage, cooling systems, backup generation, utility infrastructure, phasing, and other intensity characteristics. distinct principal-use classification

The required permanent UDC amendment must identify districts where each data-center classification is prohibited, allowed only with specified standards, or allowed only after Special Use Approval or another authorized land-use review. prohibited

The proposed permanent regulations must consider added siting and development controls, including residential and sensitive-use separation, setbacks, landscape buffers, noise mitigation, generator and fuel-storage controls, utility infrastructure, cooling equipment, screening, fencing, landscaping, access, emergency access, service areas, and development phasing. setbacks and landscape buffers

The proposed UDC amendment must establish disclosure requirements for project-specific electrical and water demand, power and water sources, cooling-related water use, wastewater, stormwater, generators and fuel storage, noise, utility infrastructure, phasing, expansion, and required infrastructure improvements. projected peak electrical demand

DPD must create objective criteria for determining when expansion, intensification, or modification of an existing data center is a material expansion or material change requiring additional land-use review, including increases in building area, site area, electrical or water demand, generation, cooling, utility infrastructure, phases, noise, or other impacts. material expansion or material change

The ordinance directs DPD to create a distinct data-center use classification and a formal process for reviewing applications for new data centers, subject to later UDC amendment and approval. Section 1

The planned UDC amendment must identify zoning districts where each data-center classification may be prohibited, permitted with standards, or allowed through special-use or another authorized review process, creating potential approval pathways for future facilities. Section 2

The temporary pause is expressly limited to 135 days and cannot be extended administratively; any extension requires separate City Council legislation. Section 10(B)

The pause does not apply where it would unlawfully impair vested property rights, previously granted entitlements, legally protected applications submitted before the ordinance took effect, or other rights protected by Tennessee or federal law. Section 10(D)

Projects with valid permits or development approvals issued before the effective date may continue work, if they had commenced before that date and continuation is protected by law. Section 10(D)(1)

Lawfully established data centers may continue operating during the temporary pause, and ordinary repair or maintenance is expressly allowed. Sections 10(D)(2) and 10(E)

The pause does not prohibit permits for immediate health, life-safety, fire, structural, environmental, or emergency corrections, work required by a lawful governmental order, or other activity that the Law Division determines must be allowed under applicable law. Section 10(D)

An ordinary server room, telecommunications equipment room, network closet, or similar computing equipment that is accessory and incidental to another lawful principal use is excluded from the interim definition of a data center and therefore is not covered by the temporary pause. Section 10(F)

A temporary 135-day pause prohibits City departments, boards, commissions, officers, and employees from accepting, processing, scheduling, hearing, approving, issuing, or granting new applications, permits, or City land-use or development approvals for establishing or constructing a new data center. The pause ends earlier if permanent data-center regulations are lawfully adopted and become effective, and it cannot be extended administratively.

During the temporary pause, covered applications include zoning changes, special-use permits, other discretionary land-use approvals, site or development plans, grading approvals, building permits, and other City development approvals determined by the Law Division to be subject to the pause.

The pause does not apply where it would unlawfully impair vested property rights, previously granted entitlements, legally protected applications submitted before the ordinance takes effect, or other rights protected by Tennessee or federal law.

The pause allows only limited exceptions for work authorized by preexisting valid permits on projects commenced before the effective date, ordinary repair or maintenance of existing data centers, correction of immediate health, life-safety, fire, structural, environmental, or emergency conditions, compliance with government orders, and other activity the Law Division determines must be allowed by law.

The proposed permanent UDC amendment must establish a distinct data-center use classification and may create separate classifications based on factors such as peak electrical demand, water demand, building size, site acreage, cooling systems, backup-generation capacity, utility infrastructure, and planned buildout.

The proposed permanent UDC amendment must identify where each data-center classification is prohibited, allowed only subject to development standards, or allowed only after special-use approval or another legally authorized land-use review.

The proposed permanent UDC amendment must evaluate or establish siting and development standards addressing residential separation, schools, childcare facilities, parks, waterways, floodplains, wetlands, groundwater, setbacks, buffers, noise, generators, fuel storage, substations, cooling equipment, lighting, screening, landscaping, access, emergency access, service areas, and phased buildout.

The proposed permanent UDC amendment must require applicants, to the extent legally permitted, to disclose infrastructure and resource information including peak electrical demand, electricity consumption and sources, water demand and sources, cooling-water requirements, wastewater, stormwater, backup generators and fuel storage, utility infrastructure, noise, development phases, future expansion, and required infrastructure improvements.

The proposed permanent UDC amendment must establish standards for existing data centers and objective criteria for determining when an expansion, intensification, or modification is a material expansion or material change requiring additional land-use review.

The ordinance requires the Division of Planning and Development to prepare proposed UDC text within 90 days and initiate the Land Use Control Board process, including definitions, classifications, zoning districts, approval mechanisms, siting standards, disclosure requirements, environmental considerations, phased development rules, and standards for material expansion or modification.

The temporary pause on new data-center applications and approvals lasts no more than 135 days and ends earlier if permanent data-center land-use and siting ordinances are lawfully adopted, so it is not a permanent prohibition.

The pause does not apply when doing so would unlawfully impair vested property rights, previously granted entitlements, legally protected applications submitted before the ordinance takes effect, or other rights protected by Tennessee or federal law.

Projects with valid permits or development approvals issued before the ordinance takes effect may continue work if they commenced before the effective date and the work is protected by law.

Lawfully established existing data centers may continue operating during the temporary pause, subject to applicable law.

Existing data centers may perform ordinary repairs and maintenance during the temporary pause.

The pause does not prohibit permits needed solely to correct immediate health, life-safety, fire, structural, environmental, or emergency conditions.

The pause does not prohibit work necessary to comply with a lawful governmental order or other activity that the Law Division determines must be allowed under applicable law.

The proposed permanent zoning amendment must identify zoning districts where data centers may be prohibited, permitted subject to standards, or permitted through special-use or another authorized land-use review, thereby establishing potential approval pathways for data centers.

A temporary 135-day pause prohibits the City from accepting, processing, hearing, approving, or issuing approvals for new data-center applications and construction, unless permanent regulations take effect sooner. The pause does not apply where it would unlawfully impair vested rights, previously granted entitlements, legally protected applications, or other rights protected by law.

New data centers must obtain all applicable zoning, land-use, site-plan, building, utility, environmental, and other City or legally required approvals before establishment, construction, expansion, enlargement, or material modification.

The permanent framework requires data centers to be classified by scale and land-use intensity, with zoning districts designated where each classification is prohibited, allowed only with standards, or subject to special-use or other land-use review.

A large data center is defined as one with projected electrical demand of at least 20 megawatts, or one intended to reach at least 20 megawatts within 10 years of initial occupancy.

Applications for new data centers must disclose ultimate development details, including maximum building area, electrical demand, computing capacity, cooling systems, water demand and sources, wastewater, backup generation, battery storage, renewable procurement, carbon-based electricity use, and future phases. Applicants may not evade the requirements by dividing a campus into separate buildings, owners, applications, or phases.

All new data centers must use closed-loop cooling. Open-loop, once-through, and routine evaporative cooling are prohibited, and routine cooling-water blowdown or discharge is prohibited except when specifically approved for safety or maintenance.

Data centers may not use local groundwater, surface water, municipal drinking water, aquifers, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, or other local water resources for routine cooling when the withdrawal is a major water withdrawal. New private wells primarily serving routine cooling are also prohibited.

Diversion of water from the Mississippi River, Wolf River, Nonconnah Creek, aquifers, reservoirs, lakes, or other local resources for routine cooling requires authorization under applicable law and separate City approval following public review.

Routine cooling may not use treated potable water from the City system except for initial closed-loop filling, unavoidable losses, emergencies, necessary maintenance, or another expressly approved use. Intentional evaporative cooling may not use potable water.

Every applicant must submit a professionally certified Water Conservation and Resource Protection Plan covering cooling systems, water demand and sources, evaporation prevention, discharge prevention, leak detection, metering, recycling, emergencies, and wastewater management.

Data centers must separately meter facility water, cooling water, makeup water, non-cooling water, and, where feasible, wastewater discharge, and must submit annual reports documenting water use, sources, losses, authorized discharges, and emergency withdrawals.

New data centers must match at least 60% of annual electricity consumption with renewable or other non-carbon electricity at operation, 75% after three years, 90% after six years, and 100% after ten years.

New data centers may not exceed carbon-based electricity limits of 40% in years 1–3, 25% in years 4–6, 10% in years 7–9, and 0% beginning in year 10. Emergency, legally required testing, maintenance, and grid-emergency generator use is excluded from routine electricity consumption.

Fossil-fuel backup generators may operate only during outages, declared emergencies, required testing, maintenance, protection of life or critical equipment, or when required by an electric utility or government emergency authority. They may not serve as a routine primary power supply, and new facilities must evaluate battery and renewable backup alternatives.

Expansions must demonstrate compliance with the data-center regulations. An expansion increasing electrical demand by 20% or more is reviewed as a new large data center, and expansions increasing water demand must comply with the cooling, water-use, conservation, metering, and reporting requirements.

Existing data centers may continue lawful operations, but must submit water, cooling, electricity, renewable-energy, generator, maximum-demand, and expansion-plan information within 12 months of the permanent ordinance's effective date. Major expansions require compliance with the ordinance.

Data-center applicants must identify and, to the extent permitted by law, bear incremental electrical-infrastructure costs attributable to their projects, and must document anticipated infrastructure requirements.

Before approval of a large data center, the applicant must submit a Grid and Energy Impact Statement addressing demand, consumption, peaks, interconnection, renewable procurement, storage, carbon-based electricity, infrastructure needs, and available service information from the serving utility.

Data centers must annually certify compliance through an authorized officer, manager, or responsible engineer. Knowingly submitting false information is a violation, and the City may impose notices, civil penalties, permit suspensions, expansion denials, approval revocations where authorized, injunctions, and other lawful remedies.

Lawfully operating existing data centers may continue their operations, subject to existing law, rather than being required to comply retroactively with all new standards. (Existing Data Centers lawfully operating before the effective date)

Existing data centers may perform ordinary repairs and maintenance during the temporary pause on new data-center applications and approvals. (ordinary repair or maintenance)

The temporary pause does not apply where it would unlawfully impair vested property rights, previously granted entitlements, legally protected applications submitted before the ordinance, or other rights protected by state or federal law. (vested property right)

Projects with valid preexisting permits or development approvals may continue work, to the extent protected by law, even during the temporary pause. (valid permit or development approval)

The temporary pause allows permits needed solely to correct immediate health, life-safety, fire, structural, environmental, or emergency conditions, and allows other activity that the Law Division determines must legally be allowed. (immediate health, life-safety, fire, structural, environmental, or emergency condition)

An expansion of an existing data center that increases electrical demand by less than 20 percent is not automatically required to be reviewed as a new Large Data Center, although it must still comply with other applicable requirements. (increases the facility’s electrical demand by twenty percent)

New data centers may use several non-evaporative cooling technologies, including air cooling, dry cooling, direct-to-chip cooling, rear-door heat exchangers, immersion cooling, closed-circuit cooling, and other technologies approved by the City Engineer. (Acceptable cooling technologies may include)

The water rules permit limited use of treated potable water for initial filling of an approved closed-loop cooling system, unavoidable system losses, emergencies, maintenance, or another City-approved use. (initial filling of an approved closed-loop cooling system)

Data centers may satisfy renewable-energy requirements through a broad range of options, including onsite generation, utility programs, long-term power-purchase agreements, community programs, and legally recognized retired renewable-energy certificates. (Qualifying renewable electricity may include)

New data centers may continue using some carbon-based electricity under a phase-out schedule: up to 40 percent in years 1–3, 25 percent in years 4–6, and 10 percent in years 7–9, reaching zero in year 10. (Years 1-3: forty percent)

Fossil-fuel backup generators may operate during outages, declared emergencies, required testing, maintenance, to protect life or critical equipment, or when required by the utility or governmental emergency authority. (Fossil-fuel generators may operate only)

The temporary pause does not cover an accessory and incidental ordinary server room, telecommunications equipment room, network closet, or similar computing equipment serving another lawful principal use. (ordinary server room)

Establishes a temporary moratorium beginning on the ordinance’s effective date: applications may be accepted only for docketing and completeness review, but may not be processed, scheduled, heard, approved, or issued.

During the moratorium, the City may not process rezoning, planned-development, special-use, conditional-use, site-plan, building, grading, land-disturbance, or other discretionary land-use applications for new data centers or high-density computing facilities.

The moratorium also prevents City departments, boards, commissions, agencies, and officials from approving covered applications, and tolls applicable review deadlines to the extent permitted by law.

Existing data centers are exempt only if they do not expand their building footprint, electrical demand, utility capacity, or operational intensity; expansions that increase any of those factors remain subject to the moratorium.

A moratorium waiver is available only through the City Council and requires written findings that strict application would deny the applicant all economically viable use of the property.

Before the moratorium ends, the City must complete a community-engagement process that includes at least three geographically distributed public meetings, a public-comment period of at least 30 days, and a final community-engagement report.

Future data centers may be permitted only in development areas identified through the required siting process and approved by the City Council through the legally required land-use and ordinance process; such areas cannot be designated administratively.

Designation of a data-center development area does not guarantee project approval, reserve utility capacity, waive permits or regulatory requirements, or create a vested right.

Future qualifying applications must satisfy a substantial-compliance framework requiring, among other things, legal site control, ownership and affiliate disclosures, a full-campus plan, phase schedules, maximum site electrical demand, utility-load projections, energy and operations plans, water and wastewater projections, environmental and safety information, evidence of financial capacity, payment of lawfully required study deposits, and disclosure of requested discretionary public development value.

Applicants seeking MLGW electric service must obtain the applicable MLGW study or readiness statement and comply with MLGW large-load service and capacity requirements; City approval cannot reserve or guarantee electric capacity.

Self-supplied, behind-the-meter, and hybrid facilities must disclose and address their complete site-wide electrical demand and provide information on generation, fuel, emissions, noise, cooling, water use, safety, fire protection, storage, interconnection, emergency operations, decommissioning, and construction phasing.

The moratorium lasts until the earliest of 18 months after its effective date, adoption and operative implementation of comprehensive permanent data-center regulations following the required engagement and reporting process, or repeal, modification, or termination by a later ordinance.

Existing lawfully operating data centers and high-density computing facilities may continue operating if they do not expand their building footprint, electrical demand, utility capacity, or operational intensity.

Routine maintenance, repair, replacement, or modernization of an existing facility may proceed during the moratorium if it does not materially increase operational impacts.

Applications legally vested under state or local law before the ordinance was introduced are exempt from the moratorium and may continue under the applicable vested-rights protections.

Accessory computing infrastructure serving another lawful principal use is excluded from the moratorium, including servers and related equipment used by hospitals, financial institutions, schools, government facilities, offices, retail businesses, manufacturers, and telecommunications facilities.

An applicant may seek a City Council waiver if applying the moratorium would deny all economically viable use of the property; the waiver requires written Council findings.

During the moratorium, the City may accept data-center applications for docketing and completeness review, although the applications may not be processed, heard, approved, or issued until the moratorium ends.

The ordinance establishes a process for designating one or more areas where future data centers and high-density computing facilities may be permitted under permanent development standards and objective siting criteria.

The future energy-review framework must be source-neutral and recognize both utility-served or hybrid facilities and self-supplied or behind-the-meter facilities, rather than excluding facilities based solely on their energy source.

A facility that does not use MLGW electric service, or uses onsite generation or an independent power producer, does not need MLGW approval unless approval is required by applicable law, contract, utility service, interconnection, backup-service, or safety requirements.