This page is a snapshot, cut 13 September 2026, of a topic that moves. Below is the shape of the movement, read from the towns' own meeting records, and the way to get a view of it that stays current.
Local rules deciding whether a data center can be built and on what terms: zoning for large computing facilities, noise, water and power conditions, decommissioning security, and the tax agreements negotiated alongside them.Our definition of the class.
Snapshot taken 13 September 2026, based on 130 dated municipal records flagged as data center regulation, spanning 76 municipalities across 23 states. The topic moves; a later cut supersedes this page.
What this page is for one topic at state or national scope, told as a story: how it arrived, the shape of its movement, a dated snapshot of a moving record, and the door to a view of it that stays current. If it does not, write to us; that is what changes the next edition.
Source documents 3 of 4 on this page link straight to the town's own record. The rest are available on request. Ask for access.
The record starts in Iowa, 19 July 2021. Since then 76 municipalities in 23 states have put the topic on a meeting record, at very different speeds: Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire hold 58% of the dated events between them.
The last 90 days put 37 meetings on the record, down from 55 in the 90 days before. 1 more is already on posted agendas.
It runs through the rooms where budgets and ordinances are made: City Council, Town Council and Planning Board.
| Quarter | Meetings | Towns | States |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 to Nov 2025 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Dec 2025 to Feb 2026 | 28 | 22 | 14 |
| Mar 2026 to May 2026 | 55 | 34 | 15 |
| Jun 2026 to Sep 2026 (current) | 38 | 25 | 12 |
a rolling 90-day total, so the right-hand point is that same 90-day count. The busiest stretch was Mar 2026 to May 2026, with 55 meetings.
| State | Towns on the record | Meetings, 90 days | Latest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maine | 19 | 17 ▼ -19.0% | 2026-09-09 |
| Massachusetts | 9 | 2 | 2026-08-06 |
| New Hampshire | 9 | 4 ▲ +33.3% | 2026-08-10 |
| Pennsylvania lighter read | 4 | 0 | 2026-05-27 |
| Georgia lighter read | 4 | 1 ▬ +0.0% | 2026-07-27 |
| Kentucky lighter read | 4 | 3 | 2026-08-20 |
| Iowa lighter read | 3 | 0 | 2026-05-14 |
| New York lighter read | 3 | 3 new on the record | 2026-08-12 |
| Virginia lighter read | 2 | 2 new on the record | 2026-08-20 |
| Wisconsin lighter read | 2 | 1 ▬ +0.0% | 2026-07-21 |
| Michigan lighter read | 2 | 0 | 2026-01-21 |
| Utah lighter read | 2 | 1 ▬ +0.0% | 2026-07-17 |
| Washington lighter read | 2 | 1 ▬ +0.0% | 2026-08-27 |
| Alabama lighter read | 1 | 0 | 2026-03-27 |
| Delaware lighter read | 1 | 1 ▬ +0.0% | 2026-07-17 |
And 8 more states on the record, in an account view.
9 September 2026 · Scarborough, Maine Ordinance Committee
the ordinance, on the town's own site Ordinance Committee - Sep 09 2026 — 2026-09-09
8 September 2026 · Old Town, Maine
the document, on the town's own site Council mtg packet 09.08.2026
2 September 2026 · Biddeford, Maine Planning Board
the meeting packet, on the town's own site Planning Board Meeting (Live) 2026-09-02 — Planning Board
1 September 2026 · Westbrook, Maine
the agenda, on the town's own site Agenda — 2026-09-01
And 303 more companies.
The documents naming each, and the threads they sit in, are the account view. If one of these is you, those are your projects on the record. Ask and we will show you every one, and the towns around them, as they move.
Everything above is frozen at 13 September 2026; the topic is not. 8 more events on this topic carry no usable date and are counted, never dated. The counts follow where we read most: a town or a state absent here was not read at depth, and absence is not evidence the topic is absent there. A lighter-read state is not a ceiling; where you care about a region, pointing the system there is the first thing an account changes. How coverage is built, and its known limits: municipalalpha.com/methodology.
We track this topic continuously; this page is one cut of it, taken 13 September 2026. An account turns the snapshot into a working view: every town and every document behind these counts, the thread on each matter as it develops, word of new meetings as they land on the record, your own states and topics side by side, and the data itself when you want it in a table. The towns above are the taste; what each is actually deciding, funding or stalling is the read an account carries.
Each state's name above opens its own page. Counts and dates are computed from the documents on the record; the topic and its definition are ours. This page carries no subscriber content.
Scope
Across the country
Towns on the record
76
States on the record
23
Earliest
19 July 2021
Meetings, last 90 days
37 against 55 before
Snapshot cut
13 September 2026
A view that stays current