Lake Elsinore Extends Data Center Freeze 10 Months Despite No Projects Pending
Lake Elsinore’s City Council unanimously extended the city’s temporary data center moratorium by 10 months and 15 days, despite there being no active data center proposals within city limits. Officials said the extension will provide time to rewrite zoning rules and study potential impacts, while residents remain concerned about environmental, utility and public health effects.
Lake Elsinore’s City Council unanimously extended its 45-day data center moratorium by 10 months and 15 days, using authority under California Government Code Section 65858. The freeze gives city staff time to revise local rules governing data center intensity, utility demand, environmental impacts, noise and other operational concerns. Councilmember Steven Manos confirmed that no data center application is currently pending in the city.
The decision comes amid regional concern over a separate proposal by Santa Ana-based Global Stack USA to study a container-sized edge data center at the state-owned Lake Perris Fairgrounds. Residents have raised environmental, health, economic, electricity and water-use concerns, though the fairgrounds project is outside Lake Elsinore’s municipal zoning authority. The city said the developer has agreed not to build within Lake Elsinore, leaving the state-owned property as the focus of the broader local debate.