El Segundo's City Council on Tuesday, Sept. 15, took up a 45-day moratorium on new data center projects.

The council held a special meeting alongside its regular session to consider the freeze. It also held a public hearing on a proposed wave pool surf club at 100-200 S. Nash St.

The moratorium would pause all new data center applications and approvals while staff examines current definitions, zoning regulations and application procedures, according to a pre-meeting post by a local activist who credited community group Sea Change with pushing the item onto the agenda. A meeting attendee posted on social media that the moratorium passed, though the city's official recap described both items only as "discussed." Official vote tallies have not been released.

The moratorium follows a fight over a proposed 240,000-square-foot data center at 750 N. Nash St. Developer Arjun Shokeen, founder of Eight Form, had applied to demolish the Hyatt Place hotel and build a five-story facility reaching 169 feet tall, paired with a high-voltage electrical substation. Nearly 60 residents lined up to oppose the project at the Planning Commission's July 9 meeting, and Shokeen withdrew the application before public comment ended, the Daily Breeze reported.

"I've heard the community loud and clear. … We're going to be withdrawing the application; we're not going to be moving forward with the data center," Shokeen said at the July 9 hearing.

The proposed data center would have sat within the Corporate Campus Specific Plan, a 46.5-acre mixed-use zone between Nash and Douglas streets near the Metro C Line that dates to 2002.

The Sept. 15 moratorium is the second zoning pause El Segundo has considered this year. The council approved a 45-day moratorium on multi-family housing projects at its June 16 meeting.

Details on the wave pool surf club, including the applicant's identity and the hearing's outcome, were not available in the city's public recap. The pre-meeting agenda described the facility as a "wave pool commercial recreation facility" at 100-200 S. Nash St.

The next El Segundo City Council meeting is Tuesday, Oct. 6.