{"id":303004,"date":"2026-10-09T10:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T10:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/303004\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T10:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T10:30:09","slug":"council-passes-data-center-regulations-justin-pearson-banned-from-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/303004\/","title":{"rendered":"Council passes data center regulations, Justin Pearson banned from meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDavid Royer and Melissa Moon<\/p>\n

\t\t10 hours ago\n<\/p>\n

MEMPHIS, Tenn. \u2014 Memphis City Council members passed two ordinances regulating data centers on first reading Thursday.<\/p>\n

The measures, which must pass two more readings to be enacted, would amend the city\u2019s zoning code for data centers. The council agenda packet included few details.<\/p>\n

City Council did not take up a proposed temporary moratorium on new data centers.<\/p>\n

Several speakers still had a chance to voice their opinion about the moratorium vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been organizing for almost a year now, holding community meetings, doing the work that actually you should have been doing at the city council, canvassing the folks, phone making, and letting them know what actually would happen with the moratorium. And that\u2019s why so many people showed up in support of it. They understand that it won\u2019t stop the data centers currently here,\u201d said activist Amber Sherman.<\/p>\n

\t
\n\t\tFight erupts during council meeting about moratorium; vote delayed\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The Council moved that vote to Oct. 20 after a heated meeting on the issue Tuesday. Nearly 200 activists and concerned citizens showed up with signs and bullhorns yelling at council members.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody in the audience wanted to hear anything that was happening up there. They were ramped up from the moment they came in,\u201d said Memphis Councilman Chase Carlisle. \u201cIt was a yes vote, or this thing\u2019s going down. Like, that\u2019s not democracy. That\u2019s not the facilitation of the exchange of free ideas. That\u2019s intimidation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>City Council Thursday. Melissa Moon WREG<\/p>\n

The council meeting looked a lot different Thursday.<\/p>\n

The crowd was smaller, with extra security and signs reminding folks of the city\u2019s rules of decorum.<\/p>\n

State Rep. and congressional candidate Justin Pearson announced he was one of those banned from council meetings.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know anything about that?\u201d Pearson asked council members. \u201cI have not received that, but I did want to get some clarification because it said that in the letters I\u2019ve seen that I was being disruptive or whoever gets the letter is being disruptive, but I was not being disruptive. \u201c<\/p>\n

City council also passed an ordinance that would allow short-term rentals in Memphis to be deemed a public nuisance after three violations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Royer and Melissa Moon 10 hours ago MEMPHIS, Tenn. \u2014 Memphis City Council members passed two ordinances…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-303004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}