With data center moratoriums, Madison and Dane County buy time to update land-use regulations

With the controversy surrounding hyperscale data centers growing more intense, the city of Madison and Dane County have imposed moratoriums on the consideration of new data centers while they craft new zoning code regulations to manage their potential effects.

The two moratoriums aren’t exactly alike, but both buy several months of time for the respective units of government to respond to how the data center industry is evolving. The break also gives the municipalities time to learn from other communities that approved large data centers.

While there could be hiccups in the process as 2026 unfolds, both the city and county expect to have updated land-use codes in 2027, with the city’s coming as soon as December 2026...