Local city councils will remain the primary check on new data center development in Washington County after Gov. Tina Kotek's advisory committee announced it will not recommend a statewide moratorium.
The seven-member committee wrapped up public deliberations during an Aug. 5 meeting and said it will recommend more transparency from the data center industry and stronger state-local partnerships, according to reporting by the Oregon Capital Chronicle.
The committee's recommendations will go to the state Legislature for the 2027 session beginning in January.
"That was not our charge," co-chair Margaret Hoffmann, a member of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and former energy policy adviser to governors John Kitzhaber and Kate Brown, said of a moratorium on Aug. 5. "The charge really was, how should we do this kind of economic development in Oregon while being good stewards of our natural resources."
The decision puts the committee at odds with four Democratic legislators who plan to propose a three-year ban on new large data centers during the 2027 session.
That group includes two lawmakers representing communities near Tigard and Tualatin: Sen. Courtney Neron Misslin (D-Wilsonville) and Rep. Farrah Chaichi (D-Beaverton). As we reported Aug. 2, the Tualatin City Council is scheduled to vote at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 10, on Lam Research's $1.7 billion R&D expansion under a Strategic Investment Program tax abatement deal. Lam Research is a semiconductor equipment company, not a data center operator, but its expansion uses the same local tax abatement framework at the center of the data center debate.
Washington County has between a dozen and three dozen data centers operating or planned, making it the second-largest concentration in Oregon after the Boardman-Hermiston area. Data centers statewide will receive nearly $500 million in property tax breaks in 2026 alone, and most of those abatement deals are negotiated at the local level.
That local authority is exactly what the committee's stance preserves. Without a state moratorium, councils in Tigard, Tualatin and neighboring cities will decide whether to approve or restrict future projects on their own timelines. Hillsboro's City Council voted unanimously Sunday, Aug. 2, to impose a 120-day moratorium on new data center approvals.
Neither Tigard nor Tualatin has taken similar action.
A July poll by Portland firm DHM Research found two-thirds of Oregon voters support a pause on new data centers used for artificial intelligence, and nearly three-quarters oppose property tax incentives for data centers. The issue already carries political weight in Washington County: data center opposition helped unseat incumbent state Sen. Janeen Sollman in the May 2026 primary.
The committee's draft report is due by mid-September. A final public meeting is set for Wednesday, Sept. 23, with a final report expected in October. Residents can submit comments at that Sept. 23 meeting before the recommendations head to lawmakers.
