Once again, Memphis City Council members pushed pause on a moratorium on data centers in favor of further discussions during a tense Oct. 6 meeting that turned violent.
Anger in the crowd boiled over after the 7-5 vote. Many in attendance were in favor of the moratorium. Their hopes were fueled by a councilman JB Smiley’s demand to hold a vote on a 12-month moratorium.
It is the second time a third and final vote on Smiley’s proposal was added to the agenda. Third and final votes on a pair of ordinances that regulate the tech facilities were also pulled. A similar ordinance was offered by council attorney Alan Wade during the morning session.
Councilman Chase Carlisle moved to postpone the vote on all proposals after discussions revealed the split on the moratorium.
“We’ve got a little bit of time, not all the time in the world, to work this out,” said Carlisle. “So, I’m going to move to hold (agenda items) 19, 20, 21 and 31 … to the following meeting … under the precipice that we are going to convene a planning and zoning meeting.”
Zoning is the primary means for the city to address data centers. The council and the Shelby County Commission are currently overhauling the unified development code. The effort dovetails with the data center proposals currently on the council’s table. Other concerns, such as pollution and other health hazards, are regulated by the federal government.
In the end, the majority of council members were in favor of keeping the ball rolling. A special called meeting was penciled in for Thursday, Oct. 8. Members will mull the three options on the table in hopes of finding a long-term solution.
“(Council members) are trying their best to work quickly as possible to appease the desire of other members to move quickly, which is the idea of a working session on Thursday to try to bring this to a resolution,” Carlisle said.
Voting in favor of the pause were Ford Canale, Rhonda Logan, Philip Spinosa, Jeff Warren, Janika White, Yolanda Cooper-Sutton and Carlisle. Those opposed were chairwoman Jana Swearengen-Washington, Jerri Green, Pearl Eva Walker, Michalyn Easter-Thomas and Smiley.
After the tally, activists and supporters of the moratorium refused to leave the council chamber. Police officers were called in to clear the room during an impromptu demonstration. As protesters continued to chant, a fist fight between two women broke out in the lobby outside the chamber. It was unclear if the scuffle was related to the protests or the council vote. One person was detained following the disruption.
Judging from the discussion prior to the vote, there are still plenty of unanswered questions. One unknown is the contract the city signed with xAI, now SpaceXAI. According to one member of the council, no member has been privy to the contents of the document nor were they included in any discussions prior to its signing.
Since that time, Space XAI owner Elon Musk has rapidly developed a Whitehaven data center. A companion facility is located just south of the border in Southhaven. Other data centers have rapidly popped up too. There are currently between 13 and 16 of the unregulated facilities in Memphis.
“I have been for a pause since day one since I found out about it,” said Cooper-Sutton. “I am in total agreement of the moratorium. But what I am not in total agreement of, I wasn’t at the table when this contract was signed with xAI.”
Mayor Paul Young negotiated the pact and community benefits arrangement of the initial real estate transaction. However, the full details of the deal are shrouded in mystery. Copper-Sutton used the moment to defend the council from the hostile crowd.
“There is a contract that’s lingering out there, and not one person said anything about that contract that’s lingering out there. And I wasn’t at the table. We were not at the table when they signed that contract. There were NDA’s (non-disclosure agreements) that were signed,” said Cooper-Sutton. “There’s a contract and we’ve got a trillionaire sitting out here and I don’t know what they said to him, or what the consequences are.”
One positive from the arrangement was the Community Benefits Agreement, which is expected to generate $100 million in property taxes. Twenty-five percent of the revenue is slated for investments in a five-mile radius around the facility. Council members are still waiting for the city’s plans for the $3.2 million after the money arrived in July.
Members will pick up the baton again on Thursday. In addition to Wade’s proposal, the council will consider a motion by Spinosa that would designate a “digital infrastructure district” to locate future data centers. Data centers would also be classified by their energy draw.
The other proposal to receive a third and final vote delay was offered by Jeff Warren. In addition to revenue for further investments, it requires zero emissions technology and water-free cooling systems be used by data centers.
