{"id":345429,"date":"2026-06-03T21:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/345429\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T21:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:29:13","slug":"in-first-california-city-overwhelmingly-votes-to-permanently-ban-datacenters-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/345429\/","title":{"rendered":"In first, California city overwhelmingly votes to permanently ban datacenters | California"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents in Monterey Park, California<\/a>, became the first in the US to vote on a permanent ban on datacenters on Tuesday, and early results indicate a resounding victory for the prohibition.<\/p>\n

While many cities and counties have already passed temporary or indefinite moratoriums via their local governments, Monterey Park would be the first to do so through a ballot initiative.<\/p>\n

The ballot measure needs a majority vote \u2013 at least 51% \u2013 to win. As of 2am Pacific Time, 86.3% of the more than 7,000 votes counted so far<\/a> were in favor of banning datacenters. While it can take days to finalize election results, the stark gap was enough evidence for Jose Sanchez, a city councilmember, to claim a \u201clandslide victory\u201d for residents who don\u2019t want to live near datacenters.<\/p>\n

\u201c[This] shows unequivocally that residents in Monterey Park do not want datacenters in their community,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cWe hope that other communities will use the model set by residents here in Monterey Park as inspiration to stop data centers from encroaching in their backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monterey Park\u2019s city council had already passed an indefinite moratorium on datacenters in April, after growing anger towards HMC StratCap<\/a>, an investment company that was pushing to put one in the city, located in the Los Angeles region. (Developers have since withdrawn the application; the project would have covered nearly 250,000 sq ft.)<\/p>\n

Residents worried about negative environmental effects, increasing utility prices and the proximity to homes.<\/p>\n

There are a few instances of municipalities turning to ballot measures to fight back against datacenters, although Monterey county appears to be the most forceful so far. In Port Washington, Wisconsin, voters approved<\/a> a measure that requires local officials get voters\u2019 approval before offering datacenter developers tax incentives. In August, residents of Augusta township in Michigan will vote in a referendum<\/a> focused on the question of rezoning 500 acres of land for a proposed datacenter. In November, the city of Janesville, Wisconsin, is expected to vote<\/a> on a measure that would mandate the city<\/a> to have voters\u2019 approval before greenlighting any datacenter project that costs more than $450m.<\/p>\n

Nationally, seven in 10 Americans oppose the construction of AI datacenters in their local areas, according to a new Gallup poll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Jose Sanchez says city council members in Monterey Park pursued a ballot measure to \u201cmake the ban on datacenters a lot more permanent\u201d and that it would hold more weight in court, as HMC Stratcap had threatened to sue over a potential extension of the moratorium and the ballot measure. (Developers have since indicated they won\u2019t be pursuing legal action.)<\/p>\n

The ballot measure<\/a> asked voters to weigh in on banning \u201cdata centers citywide to protect air quality, drinking water resources and public health; prevent impacts to electricity and water rates\u201d. The rule will stay in place \u201cuntil ended by voters\u201d.<\/p>\n

HMC Stratcap previously called the ballot measure\u2019s language biased. \u201cThe proposition is written in a manner that would greatly prejudice voters in favor of the measure,\u201d they wrote in a 4 March letter<\/a> to city council.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to go to court and say the residents of Monterey Park voted to ban datacenters is a much better gauge of where our residents are versus, only five city council members voted for an ordinance,\u201d said Sanchez.<\/p>\n

The Data Center Coalition (DCC), a trade association that tracks development of these facilities across the country, notes they are not aware of any other datacenter-related ballot measures that have been approved beyond the Monterey Park and Port Washington proposals. (Neither is Sanchez.) The DCC has championed the expansion of datacenters and is against Monterey Park\u2019s ballot measure, saying it sends a \u201csignal that the area is closed for business\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would deprive local residents of the opportunity to compete for jobs and investment, while also causing the area to relinquish substantial long-term economic investment, high-wage jobs, and critical tax revenue to neighboring areas or other states,\u201d said Khara Boender, DCC\u2019s director of state policy.<\/p>\n

Local organizers pushing for a ban on datacenters say the city council has been receptive to their concerns \u2013 and that the ballot measure was elected officials\u2019 idea. \u201cThey took [our concerns] seriously, which not a lot of city councils do,\u201d said Amy J Wong, co-founder of San Gabriel Valley Progressive Action \u2013 a key partner of the group No Data Center in Monterey Park. Wong has been involved in grassroots actions tied to the moratorium that city council already passed and Tuesday\u2019s ballot measure. She said grassroots groups put helpful pressure on the council to ban datacenters: \u201cThey recognized so many residents are angry, and, if they move forward with the datacenter, they could possibly be voted out.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said organizers had to be quick in advance of the vote. Typically, she said, ballot measure campaigns have at least a few months to get started, but they only really had two months. In that time, they printed 10,000 flyers and sent out mailers in English, Chinese and Spanish. While many residents Wong spoke to were already skeptical of datacenters \u2013 and suggested a ban was a \u201cno-brainer\u201d \u2013 there was confusion around how to vote for their desired outcome. Some didn\u2019t know whether a vote of \u201cyes\u201d\u2019 or \u2018\u201cno\u201d\u2019 would affirm a ban on datacenters, she said: \u201cWe had to educate some people who thought supporting a ban means you\u2019re supposed to vote \u2018no\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling fairly confident,\u201d she said, a few hours before polls closed.<\/p>\n

Sanchez, the city council member, used to be the city\u2019s mayor and is now a high school civics teacher. The kids are paying attention, he noted. His students are always grilling him about datacenters. So is his nine-year-old daughter. He feels he\u2019s representing them too, even if they can\u2019t vote yet. \u201cThey give me an earful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nationwide backlash<\/p>\n

As anger towards the facilities powering the AI boom<\/a> sweeps the country, communities are turning to political pressure to stop their spread. They are demanding local officials pass protective ordinances and block datacenter developers\u2019 proposals. Residents often feel steamrolled by developers, prompting calls for statewide moratoriums. At least a dozen states<\/a> are considering them this legislative session, although none have been signed into law. The moratorium question has also become a flashpoint in some governors\u2019 races; in Pennsylvania<\/a> and Georgia<\/a>, challengers to incumbent governors have staked out a more extreme position on regulating AI than their opponents by pushing for temporary bans.<\/p>\n

California is not currently considering a statewide moratorium on datacenters, and the Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer has walked back his support<\/a> for one. The cities of El Monte, Baldwin Park and Montebello are among some communities that have approved temporary bans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents in Monterey Park, California, became the first in the US to vote on a permanent ban on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-345429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}