---
title: Memphis Data Center Moratorium Vote Delayed Amid City Hall Chaos | WOW Memphis
description: Memphis City Council voted 7-5 to push its data center moratorium vote to Oct. 20. Then Tuesday's meeting ended amid protests and a lobby fight.
image: https://blog.evvnt.com/hubfs/wow-news/memphis/memphis-city-hall-1200x675.jpeg
---

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# Bedlam at City Hall: Memphis Data Center Vote Delayed Again

[Richard Green](https://blog.evvnt.com/news/author/richard-green) Oct 8, 2026, 4:46:35 PM

![Memphis City Hall, a white modernist office building with a row of flagpoles out front, on Main Street in downtown Memphis](https://blog.evvnt.com/hs-fs/hubfs/wow-news/memphis/memphis-city-hall-1200x675.jpeg?width=1200&height=675&name=memphis-city-hall-1200x675.jpeg)

Tuesday night's Memphis City Council meeting was supposed to end with a final vote on pausing new data centers. Instead it ended with chanting in the chamber, a fight in the lobby, and no vote.

**The vote that wasn't.** The proposed one-year moratorium, Ordinance 5982, was up for its third and final reading on Oct. 6. Instead, the council voted **7-5** to hold it until **Oct. 20**, along with other data center proposals.

Voting against the delay: Michalyn Easter-Thomas, Jerri Green, JB Smiley Jr., Pearl Eva Walker and council chair Jana Swearengen-Washington. Councilman Edmund Ford Sr. was absent, according to Action News 5.

**Then the room erupted.** More than 100 people came to hear the outcome, Action News 5 reported. After the delay, protesters chanted "This is our city" and "Show me what democracy looks like" as police moved to clear the chamber, according to Fox News.

Councilwoman Yolanda Cooper-Sutton was escorted out after arguing with protesters. She also criticized Smiley, the moratorium's lead sponsor. Smiley later said he hadn't heard her remarks because he was across the room.

Out in the lobby, two women got into a fight. Police say no one was detained. A police report cited by Action News 5 says one of the women told officers the two had prior issues. Fox News reported it was unclear whether the fight was connected to the meeting.

The council recessed and moved the rest of Tuesday's agenda to Thursday, Oct. 8: a planning session at 1 p.m., then the regular meeting picking back up at 4 p.m.

**What the pause would do.** For 12 months, the city would stop issuing new zoning, land use and building permits for data centers while it studies their effects on health, power, water and other infrastructure. Data centers that are already running would keep running. Councilwoman Janika White said it would stop new data centers and expansions of existing ones.

"This moratorium is not a ban, but it's a pause," Swearengen-Washington said when the ordinance passed its first reading in August, according to Bloomberg Law.

**Both sides.** Smiley said the ordinance had been before the council for at least six weeks, which he called "ample time to determine how you feel." White said the delay came from sorting through five different data center ordinances, not from ignoring residents: "The issue yesterday was not a lack of urgency or that we did not hear the cry of the constituents."

Councilman Jeff Warren, who opposes the moratorium, warned that a pause could send companies to DeSoto, Crittenden, Fayette or Tipton counties instead.

**Why it matters.** Elon Musk's SpaceXAI runs its Colossus supercomputer operation in the Memphis area, and some residents have raised concerns about data centers' power and water use, air quality and noise. Mayor Paul Young has pointed to the tax revenue data centers bring in while calling for more "guardrails."

On Thursday, Councilman Chase Carlisle held a press conference condemning the violence. He said everyone involved should be held accountable, and that it wasn't right to blame one council member for their vote.

Next stop: **Oct. 20**.

**Sources:** Action News 5 ([1](https://www.actionnews5.com/2026/10/07/council-vote-data-center-moratorium-thursday/), [2](https://www.actionnews5.com/2026/10/07/tensions-were-high-memphis-city-council-members-reflect-tuesdays-ended-meeting-data-center-moratorium-vote-postponed-again/), [3](https://www.actionnews5.com/2026/10/08/memphis-city-council-meeting-resume-thursday-after-data-center-protests/), [4](https://www.actionnews5.com/2026/10/07/new-details-emerge-after-fight-breaks-city-hall-during-data-center-vote/)), [Fox News](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/memphis-city-council-devolves-chaos-data-center-moratorium-vote-postponed), [FOX13 Memphis](https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/memphis-city-council-delays-vote-on-data-center-moratorium/article_5ba2f5eb-f545-4f30-afc5-4489217eb10f.html), [Bloomberg Law](https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/memphis-city-council-moves-toward-pause-on-data-center-approvals) and [WREG](https://wreg.com/news/local/memphis-city-council-to-vote-on-data-center-project-pause/).

**Looking for something to do?** [See what's on in Memphis on EVVNT](https://evvnt.com/events/?towns=Memphis).

*Photo: ["Memphis City Hall Main St Memphis TN 02"](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Memphis_City_Hall_Main_St_Memphis_TN_02.jpg) by Thomas R Machnitzki, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under [CC BY 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Cropped and resized from the original.*

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