Nashville Body Slams Memphis on Data Center Rules

Update, October 13th, 2026: This essay first said big data centers in Nashville can only go in heavy industrial areas – they can go in its industrial zones, including light industrial. It said the data center by the zoo already had its first permit – it had applied for its permits before the rules passed. And it said Horton filed his bill before Nashville even had a fight – he filed it before the zoo fight.

I mean – I hate to keep saying, “I told you so.” But I am banging my head against the wall with how simple this all could be.

The xAI files

Every essay in this series is pinned to a question on the board at rachelandthecity.com/the-xai-files.

Nashville wrote its data center rules in eight weeks – and Memphis just pushed back the vote on a pause for the second time.

Nashville council member Rollin Horton filed his data center bill on May 26th. It had its public hearing on July 7th and passed on July 21st – that’s eight weeks, start to finish. The same night, the council passed its own pause on new data center permits, and that one ends December 1st.

The bill makes data centers their own kind of building in Nashville’s zoning code – that’s the rulebook for what can be built where. It sorts them into five sizes by floor space and power use. The biggest ones – anything over 500,000 square feet – are banned anywhere in the county. Big ones can only go in industrial zones, and only after a public hearing at the zoning board.

It also limits when a data center can run its own gas or diesel generators – they’re for backup, testing and a defined emergency, not for everyday power.

And get this – Horton filed his bill before the zoo fight even started. He told WKRN the city had no rules for data centers – “It is the wild west” – and he wanted to get in front of them. About a week later, the Nashville Zoo went public against a data center planned right next door. Less than two weeks after that, Nashville’s mayor signed an order telling city departments – planning, health, water and the power company – to study data centers and report back in two months.

Their bill isn’t perfect, either. The first draft capped emergency generator use at 72 hours – that cap got cut along the way, and before the final vote Horton called the change “a significant degradation” of the bill’s main environmental safeguard.

The council added a definition of “emergency” on the last night. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy points out there’s still no cap on how many generators a site can install – and the rules may not reach the data center planned next to the Nashville Zoo, cause it had already applied for its permits before the rules passed.

But it’s written down, and it passed.

THE SAME DAY IN MEMPHIS

Now walk through July 7th with me.

That same day, a Memphis council committee talked about data center zoning for about 16 minutes. The recording shows nobody voted – and no ordinance came out of it. The city’s Planning Director, Brett Ragsdale, told them data centers are “a novel use” and that Memphis’s zoning code doesn’t treat them as their own kind of building. He said his office was drafting rules.

Then he laid out what other cities were doing – treating data centers as their own use, splitting the big ones from the small ones, and keeping the big ones in industrial areas.

That’s basically Nashville’s bill. Nashville held its public hearing on it that same day.

WHERE MEMPHIS IS NOW

The moratorium is Ordinance 5982. It was introduced on August 18th, and it passed its second reading 10 to 0 on September 1st. Then the final vote got held – twice.

And xAI announced it was coming to Memphis back in June 2024. So on July 7th of this year – more than two years later – the city’s own Planning Director was still saying the zoning code didn’t treat data centers as their own use.

At this rate, if it passes on October 20th, the Memphis City Council will have taken nine weeks to pass a 12-month moratorium. Nashville’s eight weeks got it rules. Memphis’s nine weeks would get it a study.

The version posted for October 6th says the permanent rules are due “no later than one hundred eighty (90) days” after the pause takes effect – so that’s either three months or six, cause the words and the number don’t match. Le sigh.

WHY IT’S SLOWER HERE

Part of it is how the two governments are built – and that part does make a difference.

Nashville and Davidson County merged into one government back in 1963. So one council writes the zoning for the whole county, owns the power company, and runs the health department that issues air permits.

In contrast, Memphis is split up. The City owns MLGW, and the council writes the zoning for the city – but that zoning code is shared with Shelby County, and Ragsdale said the new rules would go to the county commission too. And the air permits for xAI’s Memphis turbines come from the Shelby County Health Department, not the council.

But Nashville’s council didn’t write an air permit either – it put the generator limits in its zoning code, and Memphis’s council writes its own zoning code. On October 6th, Councilwoman Rhonda Logan told the room the council doesn’t have jurisdiction over the environmental issues or the electricity. Nashville’s council found a way to write rules about generators anyway – and it did it through zoning.

WHO THE RULES WOULD REACH

Like I wrote on October 6th, a pause in Memphis wouldn’t touch xAI – it’s already built.

But the next ones aren’t built yet. A $575 million permit application for 5C’s data center in the old Fred’s building on Getwell was filed on October 5th. And MLGW’s president told the council on September 1st that the next two data centers in line would need 350 megawatts between them. Those are the ones a set of rules would actually reach.

And if you read my essay about the moratorium – you know about my theory that 300 of those 350 megawatts next in MLGW’s line – is going to be another xAI data center.

And I think they’ll approve it – McGowen told a council committee on October 6th that MLGW’s substations can carry more than 6,000 megawatts, and last year’s peak was 3,436 – so it’s only using a little over half. He was clear that’s the wires, not the power – MLGW buys its power from TVA.

But here’s the real takeaway. Just because the Memphis government is not set up the same way the Nashville government is – there is absolutely no reason that all of these entities in Memphis could not have had a forum by now to come together to make a real freaking plan.

Instead – the plan is to just kick the can.

If you like facts-first info on all this, consider leaving a tip on Venmo or PayPal – this stuff takes a lot of time to put together. And check out everything I’ve written with citations and receipts at the xAI Files.

Nashville Body Slams Memphis When It Comes to Data Center Rules

The xAI files

THE SAME DAY IN MEMPHIS

WHERE MEMPHIS IS NOW

WHY IT’S SLOWER HERE

WHO THE RULES WOULD REACH

Sources

The xAI files

THE SAME DAY IN MEMPHIS

WHERE MEMPHIS IS NOW

WHY IT’S SLOWER HERE

WHO THE RULES WOULD REACH

Sources

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