The Prichard City Council is considering a temporary halt on new data center permits, a move that would give city officials more time to weigh the rapid growth of the industry in the area.
Council President Traci Hale introduced the proposed moratorium during Thursday night’s meeting. Under the resolution, the city would stop issuing new permits for data center projects for 480 days, with the option to renew the pause if council members decide more time is needed.
Hale said the proposal reflects what she has heard from residents, many of whom have told council members they do not want data centers built in their community.
The council did not take a vote on the moratorium Thursday night. Members could bring the measure back for a vote as soon as next week.
Data centers have become a flashpoint in Prichard since Edged Energy proposed building a $93 million facility on Telegraph Road. The company has said the project would bring about 20 jobs to the area, with average pay above $70,000 a year.
Despite the promised investment and jobs, the proposal has drawn pushback from residents who live near the proposed site. The objections in Prichard echo concerns raised elsewhere in Mobile County, where a separate project known as the Calvert Infrastructure Hub, proposed by Beacon Data Centers for an unincorporated area near Calvert, has faced similar pushback over issues such as water use, noise and effects on property values.
A moratorium, if adopted, would not block the Edged Energy proposal outright. Instead, it would pause the city’s ability to approve new permits for similar developments while officials review zoning rules, infrastructure needs and community input. Local governments in other parts of the country have turned to similar pauses as data center construction has accelerated alongside growing demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
Prichard, located in Mobile County, has increasingly had to weigh the economic development potential of large-scale projects against concerns from longtime residents about the impact on their neighborhoods.
Council members are expected to continue discussing the moratorium in the coming days ahead of a possible vote.
Update (Aug. 1, 2026):
Update (Aug. 1, 2026): The Prichard City Council has taken its first formal step toward the proposed moratorium, voting 4-0 during Thursday’s meeting to hold a public hearing on Aug. 13 — a legal prerequisite before members can act on the proposed 480-day pause on new data center permits. The vote came just after council attorney Moshae Donald told members that, for the first time, an official application and business permit fee had been submitted for a data center project, which she said made it important to keep the moratorium language general. “As of yesterday, we did not have applicants,” Donald said. “As of today, we now have an applicant.” Mayor Carletta Davis, who did not attend the meeting, posted on Facebook afterward stressing the urgency of adopting data center regulations now that an application is on file.
The application confirms Edged Energy’s proposed $93 million facility on Telegraph Road, near Mobile’s historic Africatown community, as the project driving the debate. Councilman Roy Smith, who visited an existing Edged Energy data center in Atlanta this week, argued the project could bring desperately needed revenue to Prichard, citing an estimate of $4.5 million to $5 million a year against a city budget of roughly $15 million. Council President Traci Hale pushed back, saying “all money ain’t good money” and noting that, unlike the Atlanta site, the Prichard location sits near homes. She voiced sympathy for residents opposed to the project.
Residents have continued to raise concerns about strain on Prichard’s water and sewer system, which already loses about 60% of the water it purchases and experiences frequent sanitary sewer overflows. Edged Energy has said its facility would use a “waterless” cooling system that would not draw on the city’s water supply and has committed to covering the cost of infrastructure upgrades needed to connect to the electrical grid. Opposition has grown in recent weeks, with crowded town hall meetings and a petition against the project that has gathered roughly 3,000 signatures. The council’s Aug. 13 public hearing is expected to be the next major step before any vote on the moratorium itself.