Connecticut local moratoria
Every local infrastructure moratorium in the inventory for Connecticut, current through September 23, 2026.
6 instruments — 4 in force, 1 pending, 1 past.
State policy is tracked separately: 7 actions (7 bills) in state_legislation.csv. These are not included in the local count above.
| Jurisdiction | Type | Enacted | Sectors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cromwell | Town | Unverified | data center | 🟡 Pending |
| Groton | Town | 2022-06-14 | data center | ⚪ Replaced |
| Morris | Town | 2026-05 | battery storage, data center | 🟢 Active |
| New Haven | City | 2026-09-08 | data center | 🟢 Active |
| Trumbull | Town | 2026-09-09 | data center | 🟢 Active |
| West Haven | City | 2026-06-08 | data center | 🟢 Active |
Detailed entries
Cromwell
- Type: Town
- Status: 🟡 Pending
- Date enacted: Not yet adopted as of 2026-09-23. Application #26-25 (a text amendment to Cromwell Zoning Regulations Section 4.2.E. to impose a 12-month moratorium on data centers) was introduced by Planning and Zoning Commission Chair Kelly; on 2026-08-18 the Commission voted 5-1 (Commissioner Michael Cannata dissenting) only to accept the application and schedule it for a public hearing at a Special Meeting on 2026-09-24 -- one day after this research date.
- Normalized date:
—(unverified) - Duration: Proposed 12 months
- Current end date:
— - Sectors: data center
- Moratorium ID:
ct-cromwell-undated - Legal basis: Proposed text amendment (Application #26-25) to Cromwell Zoning Regulations Section 4.2.E.; not yet adopted. Public hearing scheduled for a Special Meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission on 2026-09-24.
- What prompted it: regulatory_gap: the town's zoning regulations have no definition or standards for a data center use; the moratorium proposal was introduced to pause any data center application while regulations are developed alongside a broader, already-contracted zoning-regulations rewrite (consultant IMEG). Commissioner Cannata opposed the moratorium, citing an unnamed prospective applicant who has worked with the town for nine months and already secured a property option.
- Affected projects: An unnamed prospective data center applicant, described by Commissioner Cannata as having worked with the town for approximately nine months and secured an option on a property, was cited during discussion; no formal application has been filed.
- Detailed status: Pending as of 2026-09-23. At its August 18, 2026 regular meeting, the Cromwell Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-1 to accept Application #26-25 (the proposed 12-month data center moratorium text amendment) and schedule it for a public hearing at a Special Meeting on September 24, 2026 -- the Commission did not adopt the moratorium at the August 18 meeting itself. Staff confirmed no data center application is currently pending, though one commissioner referenced an interested prospective applicant. A secondary aggregator (mytownview.com) inaccurately described this August 18 procedural vote as the Commission having 'approved' and 'passed' the moratorium itself; the official filed minutes make clear only the scheduling of a hearing was voted on.
- Outcome: Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5-1 to schedule a public hearing (Sept. 24, 2026) on a proposed 12-month data center moratorium text amendment; the moratorium itself has not been adopted as of this research date.
Groton
- Type: Town
- Status: ⚪ Replaced
- Date enacted: 2022-06-14 (Groton PZC adoption, 5-0 vote); effective 2022-07-15, per the adopted motion text in the June 14, 2022 PZC meeting minutes: "This text amendment shall become effective July 15, 2022."
- Normalized date:
2022-06-14(exact) - Duration: One year
- Current end date:
— - Sectors: data center
- Moratorium ID:
ct-groton-2022 - Legal basis: Planning and Zoning Commission application REGA22-01, Data Center Moratorium Text Amendment, town-wide
- What prompted it: Local proposals for large data centers, uncertainty about how data centers differed from telecommunications facilities, and resident concerns about noise, stormwater, generator use, energy use, and environmental impacts
- Affected projects: Data center applications; public reporting states the pause applied to developments larger than 5,000 square feet and followed proposals for two 250,000-square-foot facilities near Interstate 95
- Detailed status: Replaced
- Outcome: Permanent regulations adopted in 2023 limit principal data centers to 12,500 square feet and impose siting and operating limits; public reporting describes this as blocking hyperscale projects
Morris
- Type: Town
- Status: 🟢 Active
- Date enacted: The identical moratorium text (prepared by the Town Planner and dated 2026-03-23) was re-filed by the Commission under its 'regulations' folder -- rather than the earlier 'generals'/draft-agenda-attachment folder it occupied as of the April 15, 2026 meeting -- under the title 'Public Hearing Two Year Moratorium on Battery Storage Facilities and Data Centers,' with a document date of 2026-05-20. Secondary reporting describes a public hearing held on a Tuesday and Commission approval the same week, consistent with adoption around 2026-05-19/20. Neither the exact adoption-vote date nor the Connecticut-statute-required newspaper publication date (which triggers legal effectiveness) was found in any source I could access.
- Normalized date:
2026-05(month_only) - Duration: 12 months from effective date of adoption
- Current end date:
— - Sectors: battery storage, data center
- Moratorium ID:
ct-morris-2026 - Legal basis: Town of Morris Planning and Zoning Commission, Zoning Moratorium on Battery Energy Storage Systems and Data Centers
- What prompted it: Need to evaluate land use, environmental, infrastructure, fire safety, emergency response, groundwater, traffic, noise, visual, electrical infrastructure, and water-use impacts
- Affected projects: Applications for establishment, construction, installation, or expansion of battery energy storage systems or data centers; no named project identified
- Detailed status: Adopted. The Commission's own document repository shows the moratorium text moved from a 'generals' (draft/agenda-attachment) filing on 2026-04-15 to a 'regulations' filing dated 2026-05-20, and secondary press reports the Commission approved the moratorium following a public hearing in mid-May 2026. The operative text (Section 6) fixes a 12-month term running from the effective date of adoption, notwithstanding press descriptions of it as a 'two-year moratorium' (which do not match the adopted text I read).
- Outcome: Pending; moratorium directs the commission to prepare zoning amendments as appropriate
New Haven
- Type: City
- Status: 🟢 Active
- Date enacted: Introduced 2026-07-06 as a communication by Board of Alders Majority Leader Richard Furlow (item LM-2026-0285). The Legislation Committee held a public hearing and gave a Favorable Report on 2026-08-04 (per the item's official Legistar history). The item was on the full Board of Alders' agenda for its 2026-09-08 meeting (a Tuesday, since the Board's usual Monday date fell on Labor Day). Yale Daily News reported the Board voted unanimously that Tuesday to adopt the 12-month moratorium; this is treated as the adoption date, though it could not be independently corroborated with a second source (see notes on residual uncertainty).
- Normalized date:
2026-09-08(exact) - Duration: 12 months from adoption (ordinance text: 'A TEMPORARY TWELVE (12) MONTH MORATORIUM ON DATA CENTER DEVELOPMENT WITHIN THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN'), per the official ordinance language on file with the City/Town Clerk (Legistar file LM-2026-0285).
- Current end date:
2027-09-08 - Sectors: data center
- Moratorium ID:
ct-new-haven-undated - Legal basis: Ordinance Amendment of the New Haven Board of Alders establishing a temporary twelve (12) month moratorium on data center development within the City of New Haven (Legistar file LM-2026-0285), introduced 2026-07-06, Legislation Committee Favorable Report 2026-08-04, before the full Board of Alders 2026-09-08.
- What prompted it: Proactive/regulatory-gap: the city has no zoning framework for data centers and wants to develop one before any project is proposed, drawing on approaches used by Groton, Morris, and West Haven, Connecticut.
- Affected projects: None. New Haven's Deputy Director of Zoning stated there are no current proposals or plans by any entity to build a data center in New Haven.
- Detailed status: Active as of 2026-09-23 (moderate confidence). The Legislation Committee gave a Favorable Report on 2026-08-04 and the item (LM-2026-0285) was on the full Board of Alders' September 8, 2026 agenda. Yale Daily News reported (headline and lede snippet) that the Board voted unanimously that Tuesday to adopt the 12-month data center moratorium. This could not be independently corroborated: the Yale Daily News article itself returned a bot-detection (Kasada) challenge on both a direct and a browser-mode fetch, so only the search-engine snippet could be read; New Haven Independent, which had covered every earlier stage of this item in detail, published no follow-up story on the Sept. 8 vote; and the official September 8, 2026 Board of Alders meeting agenda (fetched directly from newhaven-ct.legistar.com) groups LM-2026-0285 together with several unrelated items under a 'Legislation. Leave to withdraw' heading, which -- taken literally -- would mean the Legislation Committee's report on this batch recommended withdrawal rather than passage. This agenda-formatting ambiguity is inconsistent with the item's own recorded 8/4/2026 'Favorable Report' status and could reflect a template/carryover artifact in how the city's agenda software groups items, rather than an actual disposition of LM-2026-0285 specifically. Because no direct, unambiguous confirmation of the final vote result could be obtained, this decision is recorded with moderate rather than high confidence.
- Outcome: Proposed 12-month moratorium to allow the city's economic development department to convene a working group evaluating opportunities and impacts before any zoning framework is adopted.
Trumbull
- Type: Town
- Status: 🟢 Active
- Date enacted: 2026-09-09, Trumbull Town Council, unanimous voice vote at a public hearing/regular meeting
- Normalized date:
2026-09-09(exact) - Duration: 2 years, effective immediately upon adoption
- Current end date:
— - Sectors: data center
- Moratorium ID:
ct-trumbull-2026 - Legal basis: Resolution TC31-65 (Trumbull Town Council), amending the Trumbull Municipal Code: 'The Town hereby adopts a two-year moratorium on the establishment and development of any new data centers within the Town of Trumbull.' Public hearing held at the same September 9, 2026 Town Council meeting.
- What prompted it: specific_project concerns: 365 Data Centers (Norwalk) and Aphorio Carter (a data center division of private equity firm Carter Funds) announced in May 2026 plans for a 200 MW pipeline of AI-ready data centers, naming Trumbull's decades-old former Nasdaq data center at 80 Merritt Blvd. as a likely site for modernization into a 'high density, AI-ready' facility; a resident petition and advocacy group (Trumbull AI Data Center Watch) pushed for a moratorium and had sought (unsuccessfully) to have it cover the 80 Merritt Blvd. project itself.
- Affected projects: 80 Merritt Blvd. (former Nasdaq data center, 15 MW capacity) -- explicitly excluded from the moratorium's scope as an existing-facility modernization, not a new data center; First Selectman Vicki Tesoro reported the operator (365 Data Centers/Aphorio Carter) agreed to no increase in electrical draw, noise, or water use, and no expansion of the building footprint, as part of ongoing negotiations.
- Detailed status: Active as of 2026-09-23. The Town Council unanimously adopted Resolution TC31-65 on 2026-09-09, imposing a 2-year moratorium (effective immediately) on the 'establishment and development' of any new data centers in Trumbull. The moratorium does NOT apply to the modernization/upgrade of the town's existing 80 Merritt Blvd. data center (a 15 MW facility in operation 50+ years, now being converted to AI-ready use by 365 Data Centers), which the town characterizes as a renovation rather than new construction; residents have petitioned unsuccessfully to have that project included and are considering a signature drive (requiring roughly 2,400 voters) to force a referendum.
- Outcome: 2-year moratorium on new data center establishment/development adopted unanimously; does not reach the town's existing (and currently most active) data center project, which continues as a modernization outside the moratorium's scope.
West Haven
- Type: City
- Status: 🟢 Active
- Date enacted: 2026-06-08, per City Council meeting minutes
- Normalized date:
2026-06-08(exact) - Duration: 1 year
- Current end date:
— - Sectors: data center
- Moratorium ID:
ct-west-haven-2026 - Legal basis: City Council resolution requiring a 1-year moratorium on the development of data centers, requested by Mayor Dorinda Borer
- What prompted it: Not detailed beyond the mayor's request in captured minutes
- Affected projects: Not identified in captured minutes
- Detailed status: Adopted unanimously; not independently re-checked past 2026-06-08
- Outcome: Council unanimously approved a 1-year moratorium on data center development
Source: moratorium_inventory.csv · Methodology · Codebook.