Fairfield City Council Meeting November 10, 2026

At the November 10, 2026, Fairfield City Council special meeting, the council unanimously adopted Interim Urgency Ordinance 2026-08, establishing a citywide 45-day moratorium on accepting, processing, or approving data-center applications and entitlements while the city evaluates land-use regulations and potential public-health and utility impacts. The city manager said no data-center application is currently pending, though NorthPoint has conducted due diligence related to Planning Area 6. The discussion was about land use and infrastructure rather than procurement: no contracts, bids, vendor awards, or spending allocations were approved. The city manager described the issue in the context of power resilience, economic development, and city revenue, noting that Fairfield previously lost a potential $400 million private investment after power infrastructure could not meet the prospective project’s needs.

The city manager outlined possible future standards, including limiting sites to Planning Area 6, a residential buffer, closed-loop cooling, noise limits and monitoring, a 100-acre cap, community benefits, and changes to the utility-user-tax cap so data centers would pay the full 2% rate. Council members asked staff to examine noise and separation distances, water and wastewater capacity, groundwater monitoring, fire and battery safety, emissions, substations, electronic-waste disposal, and Travis Air Force Base’s position on data centers and power infrastructure. The city attorney explained that staff must provide a written report before the 45-day moratorium expires; any extension would require further council action and a public hearing. The council did not set a future extension or adopt permanent data-center regulations.