{"id":348013,"date":"2026-06-05T13:51:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/348013\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T13:51:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:51:22","slug":"in-a-first-for-the-country-voters-in-monterey-park-ban-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/348013\/","title":{"rendered":"In a first for the country, voters in Monterey Park ban data centers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Residents of Monterey Park voted overwhelmingly to ban data centers on election day, making the San Gabriel Valley city the first in the nation<\/a> to do so by public vote. <\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, 86% of votes were in favor of Measure NDC, the city ban, according to<\/a> the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder\/county clerk.<\/p>\n

Other cities and towns have passed moratoriums on data centers, as a wave of opposition<\/a> sweeps the country. But the Monterey Park vote can only be overturned by another ballot measure, making it the most permanent data center ban in a jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

Monterey Park\u2019s City Council had already banned data centers by ordinance, after a proposed 247,000-square-foot data center met an outpouring of public anger and concern<\/a>. The developer withdrew that plan.<\/p>\n

That facility would have been less than 500 feet away from the nearest home, and would have used three times the electricity of the entire 60,000-person city. Residents said it would have caused noise and air pollution and driven up electricity rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ensures long-lasting protections for current and future generations,\u201d Amy Wong, co-founder of the group San Gabriel Valley Progressive Action, said of the vote. \u201cIt means that future city councils cannot overturn a data center ban, even if data center developers wanted to spend money to fund pro-data center candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

The measure had no formal opposition. The developer of the proposed facility, investment firm HMC StratCap, said it wouldn\u2019t engage in the ballot fight when it withdrew in March.<\/p>\n

The Data Center Coalition, an industry trade group, expressed disappointment in the vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sends a signal that the area is closed for business, both for data centers and for other significant economic development projects,\u201d state policy director Khara Boender said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt deprives 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<\/p>\n

SGV Progressive Action worked with hyperlocal groups including No Data Center Monterey Park to rally support for the measure. <\/p>\n

The group is now focused on stopping data center proposals<\/a> in the City of Industry and fighting a move by City of Industry, Santa Fe Springs, Vernon and City of Commerce to welcome data centers and other industry with fast-tracked permitting and tax incentives. <\/p>\n

City of Industry, in the San Gabriel Valley, and Vernon, south of downtown L.A., are primarily industrial areas, each with around 300 permanent residents. They are employment centers, and tens of thousands of workers commute in daily. <\/p>\n

There has been little vocal opposition to data centers among the few residents of these cities. Wong said the protest is primarily coming from the surrounding neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a data center gets built in City of Industry, residents across the region would bear the brunt of pollution and increased utility costs,\u201d Wong said, noting that it is surrounded by 16 other cities and unincorporated communities. <\/p>\n

Data center proposals have been limited in California compared to Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Illinois and Arizona, which sit at the center of a recent boom in hyperscaler facilities to power artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n

California has the third-most data centers in the country, with 300, but high electricity rates, expensive land and regulatory hurdles mean that fewer, and smaller, facilities are currently planned<\/a> than in other hotspots. <\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean opposition hasn\u2019t been fierce. In Coachella<\/a> and Imperial County<\/a>, residents are showing up in droves to protest local proposals. <\/p>\n

In the San Gabriel Valley, Montebello, El Monte and Baldwin Park have all enacted temporary moratoriums, and Alhambra recently banned data centers as part of a zoning code update.<\/p>\n

Wong said she hoped the ballot measure vote would galvanize the opposition. \u201cThe vote is a testament to the people power of our region,\u201d she said. \u201cOur region is worth protecting, and we won\u2019t let data centers determine our future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents of Monterey Park voted overwhelmingly to ban data centers on election day, making the San Gabriel Valley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[142572,599,142570,7363,4442,38177,142573,1512,21403,48,52,51,47,50,49,141611,15641,9300,142571,288,141613],"class_list":["post-348013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-amy-wong","tag-area","tag-city-ban","tag-country","tag-data-center","tag-datum-center","tag-employment-center","tag-facility","tag-industry","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-measure-ndc","tag-monterey-park","tag-opposition","tag-public-vote","tag-resident","tag-san-gabriel-valley-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348013","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=348013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}