County alert · County notice
Clackamas County commissioners hold two hearings Oct. 21 and 22 on a possible pause on new data centers
The Clackamas County Board of County Commissioners will hold public hearings at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, and 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, on whether to adopt a temporary moratorium on data center development in unincorporated Clackamas County. People can testify in person in Oregon City, by Zoom or in writing.
The Clackamas County Board of County Commissioners will hold two public hearings this month on whether to adopt a temporary moratorium on data center development in unincorporated Clackamas County. The county announced the hearings on Sept. 29 and repeated them in its Oct. 12, 2026, newsletter.
When and where. The first hearing is Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, at 6 p.m. The second is Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, at 10 a.m. Both are in the Board Meeting Room on the fourth floor of the Clackamas County Public Services Building in Oregon City, and both can be joined by Zoom.
Can't make it? Written testimony sent to bcc@clackamas.us goes into the hearing record, the county says.
What the hearings cover. County staff will explain the legal criteria for setting a moratorium, and the staff presentation will stick to those criteria. Staff will not propose any changes to the county code on data centers at these hearings. If the board does adopt a moratorium, the county says the public comments it hears could help shape future code changes.
Why it is on the table. Data centers house the computers that store and process digital information, and the county notes that growth in artificial intelligence and cloud computing is driving more of them nationwide. They can raise questions about land use, energy, water, infrastructure and noise. The county points residents to a National Association of Counties primer on data centers for background.
The moratorium would apply only to unincorporated Clackamas County, not to land inside cities.
County announcement and Zoom links: https://www.clackamas.us/news/2026-09-29/public-hearings-on-potential-data-center-moratorium.
Original source: Clackamas County news release, "Public hearings on potential data center moratorium," Sept. 29, 2026 (https://www.clackamas.us/news/2026-09-29/public-hearings-on-potential-data-center-moratorium), and the Clackamas County email newsletter of Oct. 12, 2026. Notice Nearby wrote this brief in its own words.
What to read next: the Clackamas County hub (https://noticenearby.com/or/clackamas), the commissioners' schedule for Oct. 12–16 (https://noticenearby.com/briefs/or-clackamas-commissioners-schedule-oct-12-16-2026), the Willamette River Greenway plan hearing (https://noticenearby.com/briefs/or-clackamas-lcdc-willamette-greenway-plan-oct-2026), the Oregon hub (https://noticenearby.com/or) and how to get ready for emergencies (https://noticenearby.com/prepare). Local businesses, parks and places nearby are on ZOST.app (https://zost.app).
Notice Nearby is a Public Register listing, not a newspaper, and this page is not Legal Publication. If the county's posted notice and this note disagree, the county wins.
This is a Notice Nearby reading of an email a county sent to the publisher inbox. It states what that email said. It does not take a side. It is not a newspaper story and not Legal Publication.