Desert Hot Springs Extends Data Center Moratorium To 2 Years

The Desert Hot Springs City Council has unanimously voted to extend its urgency moratorium on data centers, adding 22 months and 15 days to the existing halt, bringing the total moratorium period to two years. City Manager Doria Wilms stated that the extension is necessary to allow staff and the council to evaluate and develop comprehensive regulations for data centers, citing concerns about significant electrical demand, extensive utility infrastructure, cooling systems, potential land use compatibility issues, public safety, environmental impacts, water consumption, and infrastructure capacity.

The initial temporary moratorium was enacted at a June 16 meeting. Councilmember Daniel Pitts supported the extension, emphasizing the importance of establishing proper regulations before allowing new land uses with potentially significant long-term community impacts. Mayor Scott Matas, however, expressed a different view, suggesting that an urgency ordinance might not be strictly necessary since no data center applications had been received and no impact study had been conducted.

As part of the extension, the city will continue to prohibit the acceptance, processing, and approval of permits for new data centers. Following Mayor Matas's recommendation, the council also directed staff to conduct a study on the potential impacts of data centers and other high-intensity computing uses in the city. The decision followed public input, with several residents advocating not just for the extension, but for a complete ban on data centers in Desert Hot Springs, with resident Jeff Dickman stating that a moratorium provides "breathing room" for the city to decide how it wants to engage with such developments.