Coachella Council to Consider 45-Day Pause on Data Center Development Tonight
The Coachella City Council is holding a special session to vote on a 45-day moratorium on data center development, following a contentious public meeting about the proposed Coachella Valley Technology Campus by Stronghold Power Systems. The moratorium aims to allow staff to study impacts and establish zoning rules, given current concerns about power, water usage, and air quality in the region.
The Coachella City Council is set to vote on a 45-day moratorium tonight that would halt all data center development applications. This special session comes one week after a highly contentious public meeting at City Hall, which saw hundreds of residents attend and required the presence of Riverside County Sheriff's deputies.
The proposed moratorium is deemed urgent by city staff because Coachella currently lacks specific zoning rules, size limits, or environmental standards for data centers. Without these regulations, the city has no framework to evaluate new development applications. The immediate focus is on the Coachella Valley Technology Campus, a data center complex that Stronghold Power Systems intends to build on 240 acres near Avenue 52 and Fillmore Street. Stronghold's initial application was rejected as incomplete due to a lack of environmental review, and no revised application has been submitted.
City concerns extend to the environmental impacts of large-scale AI data centers, which can consume as much electricity as 100,000 homes and millions of gallons of water daily, exacerbating groundwater depletion in the region. Additionally, diesel backup generators contribute to air pollution in the Coachella Valley, an area already struggling to meet ozone and particulate matter air quality standards.
The Council will also address a development agreement signed with Stronghold in February, which linked the data center campus to the development of a new Coachella Municipal Utility. Staff has presented four options for this agreement, including termination, suspension during the moratorium, renegotiation, or no immediate action. Several other California cities, such as Monterey Park, have enacted similar moratoriums this year, with some even progressing to permanent bans on data centers.