Umatilla Declares Emergency Over $5 Billion Data Center Freeze

Umatilla, Oregon has declared a Local State of Emergency over what its city manager calls the threat of more than $5 billion in delayed — potentially permanently lost — private investment, after Governor Tina Kotek blocked new data center environmental permits.

The city council approved the resolution this week and will review it in 90 days. For a city of Umatilla's size, $5 billion is the kind of money that funds decades of capital planning, and the resolution spells out exactly what's now at risk.

What does the emergency declaration actually cover?

Umatilla sits in northwest Oregon with four operating data center facilities, one under construction, and two more planned. Sabey and Amazon Web Services both operate in the area. The governor's directive to state environmental regulators, issued earlier this month, stops pollution permits for new data centers — a de facto moratorium that runs until July 2027.

The resolution warns the block could:

• Delay or permanently shelve more than $5 billion in anticipated private investment in the Umatilla area
• Push project go-live dates back by more than two years
• Threaten at least 1,000 construction jobs plus hundreds of permanent and related positions
• Put roughly $6 million in direct financial losses on the city's books
• Jeopardize a planned police station and millions of dollars in water infrastructure improvements tied to data center revenue

"Delays in anticipated revenues would necessarily delay the city's ability to implement these initiatives on their currently projected schedules," city manager Dave Stockdale said in a statement. "More concerning, prolonged permitting uncertainty could result in the postponement, relocation, or cancellation of planned private investments, potentially delaying anticipated revenues and employment opportunities by two years or more, or eliminating some of those opportunities altogether."

Is the city about to go broke?

No — and Stockdale went out of his way to say so. General Fund reserves are at historically high levels, and no current services or financial commitments depend on money that hasn't arrived yet.

"To be unequivocally clear, the City of Umatilla has not spent, obligated, or appropriated any of the anticipated future revenues potentially affected by the Governor's directive," he said. "The concern is not an immediate budget shortfall, but rather the substantial disruption to carefully developed plans for near-future infrastructure investments, community improvements, and public services."

The declaration, he said, is a proactive measure — not a response to a current crisis. Stockdale requested the emergency himself, writing to the mayor and council that the call was "not made lightly."

Why Kotek pressed pause

The governor's environmental permit block is the second shoe to drop. Last month, Kotek directed state agencies to pause land transactions for data center projects on government land, also until July 2027, to allow a statewide evaluation of the long-term impacts of large-scale data center development.

In August, she blocked the sale of 32 acres at the Mill Creek Corporate Center in southeast Salem for a proposed Verrus data center project. Some cities have moved on their own: Hillsboro imposed a 120-day moratorium on data center projects at the end of July 2026.

What happens next?

The resolution triggers an economic impact assessment of the forecasted losses, and the council will formally request an "immediate reconsideration" of the directive from Governor Kotek. The outcome of that request will shape whether Umatilla's pipeline of planned facilities stays in Oregon or looks elsewhere.

Stockdale framed the stakes in community terms. "This is about far more than data centers," he said. "It is about the families whose livelihoods depend on these jobs, the local businesses that rely on a strong and stable economy, and the residents who trust us to make responsible, long-term decisions for our community's future."

For practitioners watching Oregon's permitting climate, the message is blunt: even cities that want your builds can't issue the permits right now, and the freeze runs to mid-2027.