San Diego Data Center Moratorium Vote Highlights Federal Land Loophole as Trump Pushes Military Site Development

The San Diego City Council is set to vote Tuesday on a proposed temporary ban on large data centers, a move that underscores the growing tension between local governments seeking to regulate the rapid expansion of computing infrastructure and federal policies designed to accelerate it. The emergency ordinance, put forward by Mayor Todd Gloria, would pause for 45 days all pending applications for data centers, giving the city time to develop zoning regulations for how such facilities might fit within its boundaries. The council can renew the ban with consecutive votes for up to 20 months.

Gloria's team had reportedly been working on the temporary ban for weeks, waiting for input from the city attorney's office. Pressure to act intensified earlier this month when news emerged that Manchester Financial Group was exploring the possibility of building a 400-megawatt data center on U.S. Navy property near the Midway District. Even if the ban passes, city officials have acknowledged it cannot stop a data center from being built at 4301 Pacific Highway. "Because NAVWAR is federal land, the moratorium can't stop that project," according to a press release from Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera's office.

The situation reflects a broader dynamic in which federal property has become an attractive refuge for data center developers facing mounting local opposition. President Donald Trump has ordered the Secretary of Defense to proactively identify sites on military installations that could house data centers. On July 23, 2025, he signed Executive Order 14318, fast-tracking data centers larger than 100 megawatts through permitting processes under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act. Data centers funded mostly with private dollars would largely be excluded from environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act, the landmark 1970 law requiring federal agencies to assess environmental impacts before major decisions on permits, land management and construction.

"This administration has watered down NEPA to where it's pretty meaningless these days," said Debbie Sivas, who teaches environmental law at Stanford University. "I don't think people realize how much they've tried to neuter the laws because it's going on in real time." She described the administration's interpretation of which projects fall under NEPA as "extremely narrow," noting that federal agencies were permitted to adopt their own interim guidelines, which went into effect immediately.

Manchester Financial Group is currently negotiating with the Navy on a redevelopment project for the NAVWAR site. Under the arrangement, Manchester would build the Navy a new command center in exchange for the right to redevelop the remaining land. The final project will include housing, possibly thousands of units, and could also feature hotels, restaurants and other commercial uses, according to company officials. The Navy initiated the NEPA process for the project in 2020 and released a draft environmental impact statement in 2021, receiving more than 650 letters and 1,000 comments from the public. Sergio Hernandez, a spokesperson for the U.S. Navy, said the agency expects to publish a revised draft environmental impact statement in 2027.

The political climate around data centers has grown increasingly charged. A new Politico poll showed that at least half of Americans oppose data centers being built within three miles of their homes, and voters on both sides of the aisle are more likely to support candidates who oppose such projects. The issue has become prominent in political races and debates across the country as the Nov. 3 midterm elections approach. Hundreds of cities have placed bans on data centers, which partly explains why developers appear keen to turn to federal land. In January, the Department of Defense solicited competitive bids from developers interested in leasing land from the U.S. Army to build commercial data centers at Fort Hood and Fort Bliss in Texas, Fort Bragg in California, and Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.

Sivas likened the trend to the Trump administration's construction of detention centers on federal land to house migrants, suggesting that developers are seeking federal property as a shield from local opposition. The implications extend beyond zoning: as local governments struggle to manage the power demands and environmental footprint of large-scale data centers, federal exemptions could reshape where and how quickly such facilities are built, potentially concentrating energy-intensive infrastructure on military installations with limited local oversight.