Cities Are Pausing Data Centers. Some of Those Pauses Also Stop Battery Projects and Warehouse Conversions.
Local governments across the country continue adopting pauses on data center development. Recent examples show why the specific wording of a ban matters even to owners without data center plans. Louisville's pause was triggered by a proposal to convert an existing 350,000 square foot warehouse. An Indiana city's pause covers battery storage alongside data centers.
By Keith Reynolds | Publisher & Editor, ChargedUp!
Louisville Moves After a Warehouse Conversion Is Proposed
Louisville Metro Council voted 24 to 1 to stop approving new data center proposals for six months, or until comprehensive zoning rules are adopted. The vote came days after a developer submitted plans to convert a 350,000 square foot warehouse in southwest Louisville into a data center. Mayor Craig Greenberg had endorsed the pause more than a week earlier, the day a council committee voted to advance it to the full council, as public pressure mounted.
The warehouse detail is the part industrial owners should notice. The proposal was not a new campus on farmland. It was an existing building, already standing, already zoned industrial, being repurposed.
Baltimore Caps Data Centers at Ten Megawatts for a Year
The Baltimore City Council passed a one-year moratorium on construction of data centers drawing 10 megawatts or more. The threshold approach differs from a blanket prohibition by allowing smaller facilities to proceed. Mayor Brandon Scott signed the measure into law in June.
Ten megawatts is a low threshold by current standards and would capture many colocation and edge facilities alongside hyperscale projects. Where thresholds are being written, their level determines whether a jurisdiction has paused an industry or only its largest participants.
Why Conversion Interest Is Reaching Standing Buildings
Data center developers have historically preferred to build new, because existing buildings have unusual requirements. What has changed is that the binding constraint is no longer land or construction. It is electricity, and how long it takes to get it.
New service to a greenfield site can take years, because the utility must build the infrastructure to reach it. An existing industrial building already has service. If that service is substantial, perhaps because the building once housed manufacturing or refrigerated storage, a developer can potentially start much sooner by reusing it than by waiting in line for new capacity.
This creates a value that many industrial owners have not measured. An older distribution building in a constrained market may be worth more for the electrical service it holds than for the warehouse space it provides. That is a genuine consideration for owners of functionally obsolete industrial product, and it is a disposition option that a local pause can eliminate without ever mentioning industrial property.
An Indiana County Sweeps in Battery Storage
The second development has wider consequences for distributed energy. The Elkhart, Indiana City Council held a first reading on August 17 of an ordinance pausing new data center and battery storage applications through December 31, 2027. The council voted 9 to 0 at a special public comment meeting on August 27 to approve the moratorium, which took effect immediately and applies only within city limits, not Elkhart County.
Battery storage being swept into data center moratoria is the development with the widest consequences for distributed energy. A pause written to address hyperscale computing load can foreclose standalone storage projects that carry entirely different site, water and noise profiles, and owners planning storage in jurisdictions drafting data center rules should read the definitions rather than the headline.
Battery storage and data centers have almost nothing in common as land uses. A data center is a large occupied building with continuous heavy electricity draw, substantial cooling requirements, and in many cases significant water use. A battery installation is unoccupied equipment, often on a modest footprint, that draws electricity at some hours and returns it at others. It uses little or no water and employs almost no one.
They are being written into the same ordinance because both are understood locally as large electrical projects arriving without much warning. For an owner planning storage in a jurisdiction drafting data center rules, the risk is being caught by a definition written for something else entirely.
How Thresholds and Carve-Outs Shape the Result
Two drafting choices determine what these measures actually do.
The first is the threshold. Baltimore's one-year pause applies to data centers drawing 10 megawatts or more. Ten megawatts is modest by current standards, roughly the draw of a large hospital, so the measure captures many mid-sized facilities rather than only the largest. A threshold set at 100 megawatts would leave most projects untouched. The number, not the existence of the ordinance, decides the scope.
The second is the treatment of projects already approved. When the Indianapolis City-County Council voted 23 to 1 to bar new data centers in Marion County through the end of 2027, three previously approved projects, from DC Blox in Warren Township, Metrobloks in Martindale-Brightwood and Sabey in Decatur Township, were left unaffected. The binding ordinance followed a unanimous non-binding resolution the council passed in May urging the Metropolitan Development Commission to pause approvals. That pattern is typical and legally sensible, and it has a market consequence: an approval already in hand becomes considerably more valuable, and the gap widens between entitled and unentitled sites in the same submarket.
What to Do
1. Read the definitions in any proposed ordinance in your market, not the headline. The question is what the text covers, which may include battery storage, backup generation or any use above a stated electrical threshold.
2. If you own older industrial property, find out what electrical service it actually has. That capacity may be its most valuable attribute, and a local pause can foreclose the buyers who would pay for it.
3. Track whether your jurisdiction is drafting rules before you need them. Comment periods are where definitions get set, and a storage project excluded at the drafting stage is far cheaper than one excluded after adoption.
4. If you hold an approval for anything electrically significant, recognize that carve-outs for approved projects make it more valuable than it was, and factor that into hold or sell timing.
5. Ask what threshold applies. A project below the stated level may proceed normally even where a pause is in effect.
The Bottom Line
These measures are aimed at hyperscale computing, and they are being written in language broad enough to reach other things. A battery project can be stopped by a data center ordinance. A warehouse sale can be foreclosed by a rule that never mentions warehouses. Owners with electrically significant property, or plans for it, should be reading their local agendas rather than waiting to learn what passed.
Sources
Axios Indianapolis: Indy data center moratorium unanimously approved
Axios Indianapolis: The City-County Council passed a data center moratorium. Here's what's next.
Baltimore Fishbowl: Baltimore City Council passes one-year moratorium on data centers
https://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/2026/05/27/local-moratoria-considerations/
Technical.ly: Baltimore data center moratorium signed by Mayor Brandon Scott
WNDU: Elkhart City Council passes moratorium on data centers, battery storage facilities
WVPE: Elkhart city council passes data center, battery storage pause 9-0
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Louisville do?
The Metro Council voted 24 to 1 to stop approving new data center proposals for six months or until comprehensive zoning rules are adopted, days after a developer proposed converting a 350,000 square foot warehouse into a data center. Mayor Craig Greenberg had endorsed the moratorium more than a week earlier, as public pressure mounted. Council members had been discussing a moratorium since the previous September, with some previously concerned about signaling that Louisville was closed for business.
Why would a data center use an existing warehouse?
Because the constraint is electricity rather than construction. An existing industrial building may already have substantial electrical service, allowing a developer to begin far sooner than waiting years for new utility capacity at an undeveloped site.
Why are battery projects included in data center ordinances?
Both are treated locally as large electrical projects arriving with little warning, even though their land use characteristics differ substantially. Battery installations are unoccupied, use little water and employ almost no one.
Does a pause stop projects already approved?
Typically no. When Indianapolis barred new data centers in Marion County through 2027, three previously approved projects were unaffected. That pattern makes an existing approval more valuable.
What should an owner check first?
The definitions and the threshold in the ordinance text. Baltimore's measure applies at 10 megawatts and above, which captures mid-sized facilities. A different threshold produces a substantially different scope.
The warehouse conversion detail is what industrial owners should note. Data center demand is now reaching existing distribution product, which means a moratorium aimed at greenfield campuses can also foreclose an adaptive reuse exit for standing industrial assets.
