California City Becomes First in the Nation To Ban Data Centers Outright

The Southern California community of Monterey Park just became the first in the nation to permanently ban data centers.

Residents of Monterey Park voted overwhelmingly on June 2 to prohibit data center development outright, with about 88% supporting a ballot measure, according to information from Los Angeles County.

It's another example of locals strongly coming out against data center development, and the measure might be the strongest such restriction yet. While some regions like Durham, NC, are placing moratoriums on new development, and Ohio is pausing tax breaks while it assesses the impacts, Monterey Park's measure is permanent—another ballot measure will be required to undo it.

"Landslide win!!" Mayor Elizabeth Yang posted to Facebook shortly after the vote. "Congratulations to our city Monterey Park on making history!!!"

Saturn Street uprising

A proposed data center project in the city kicked off the resistance.

In 2024, a group of developers pitched building a 218,400-square-foot center with an electrical substation on the site of an old office building that has been empty for nearly a decade. The developers behind the project, known by its address at 1977 Saturn Street, proposed a spate of community benefits.

They'd promised a pocket park, landscaping, and millions in annual tax revenue to the city in exchange for their 16-acre development. According to the Los Angeles Times, the project was 500 feet from the closest home and would have used three times the electricity of the entire city.

But in public comment sessions that followed, residents spoke loudly against the proposal with worries about environmental quality and other concerns. Yang and several members of the City Council came out against the project.

Monterey Park—a San Gabriel Valley community of 58,000 east of Los Angeles—is majority-minority, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The median home value there is about $863,000.

"Data centers bring no long-term benefits to local communities, and they come with serious risks," one resident said in a comment session reposted by Yang.

After widespread public feedback resulted in a citywide moratorium on data centers, the developer backed out of the project in March.

National conversation

The number of data centers has ballooned across the nation in recent years. Public pushback has followed. Frequent neighbor complaints about them include noise and impact on home values, water, and local utilities. 

California hosts the nation's second-largest concentration of data centers behind Virginia. About 287 are under construction or planned in the state—including 71 in Los Angeles, according to information from Data Center Map, which tracks the business.

Lawmakers have responded in different ways. In his February State of the Union address, President Donald Trump called on data center developers to cover their energy costs, acknowledging worries from ratepayers.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) proposed a national moratorium on data center development in March. That bill never advanced out of committee.

Also, several Republican leaders, including House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-Kentucky), have called for investigations of campaigns to oppose data centers. They claim China and other foreign adversaries are funding the opposition.