The rooftop park on Ocean Pavilion offers views of the Seattle skyline and Elliott Bay. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
While tech companies including Microsoft and Amazon call the Seattle area home, residents are voicing opposition to the construction of new data centers that underpin their operations.
Seattle City Council is considering a one-year moratorium on the computing facilities, and on Wednesday heard a wave of public comments laden with concerns. Residents expressed fear about AI, called the data centers “gifts to the rich” and shared worries about rising utility bills, diminished water supplies, environmental justice and climate harm.
Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth, a bill sponsor, offered a more measured take. “We’re not trying to hinder growth in our city,” she said, but added that the city needs to slow down and understand data center impacts as the sector rapidly expands. City staff explained that the facilities vary in size and impact, and that Seattle’s government relies on the infrastructure for its own operations.
The data center issue blew up in April after The Seattle Times reported on proposals to build five large computing facilities in the city, prompting Mayor Katie Wilson to raise the possibility of a moratorium. Since then, developers have scrapped plans for two of the five.
Seattle is not alone in its resistance. A March Gallup survey found that seven in 10 Americans oppose the construction of data centers for AI applications in their local area, with nearly half strongly opposed. Separately, Pew Research Center reports that half of U.S. adults are more concerned than excited about the growing role of AI in daily life.
The city is considering a resolution and legislation that define which data centers would face regulation and lay out a work plan for next steps:
- Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities are directed to examine water and electricity usage and recommend policies and rate structures that shield customers from cost increases — with deadlines of July 1 and Oct. 30, respectively.
- The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections is directed to determine zoning and development rules to reduce data center impacts, with deadlines extending into 2027.
- The city is also weighing a framework for voluntary data center agreements that could benefit surrounding communities by addressing noise, heat, air and water pollution, workforce protections, water and energy use, as well as directing funding toward affordable housing, childcare and other social programs.
Seattle already has about 30 data centers, but they’re relatively small. Larger facilities have historically gravitated to rural areas with more land and less expensive power. The five proposed urban projects would have collectively consumed up to 369 megawatts — roughly one-third of Seattle’s average daily energy use. Data centers also draw significant water for cooling their electronics.
Washington state leaders took a crack at data center regulations during this year’s legislative session but ultimately rejected a bill requiring utilities and operators to create agreements protecting ratepayers and disclosing environmental impacts. The city’s proposed measure revisits many of those same issues, with the added weight of a moratorium.
No state has enacted a data center ban, but local governments have been moving on their own. Jurisdictions including Denver, St. Charles, Mo., and a county near Dallas have all recently approved moratoriums.
The industry has taken some steps to ease public concern. Microsoft, for example, launched a community-focused initiative in January pledging to be a good neighbor where it operates data centers.
But the relentless push for AI infrastructure will likely keep straining public sentiment. Amazon spent $147.3 billion on capital expenditures over the past 12 months, ending in April. Looking ahead, Microsoft anticipates capital costs of $190 billion in capital in 2026, largely for AI.
The council committees will vote on the bill and resolution on June 3.
