{"id":498475,"date":"2026-10-16T21:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T21:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/498475\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T21:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T21:06:13","slug":"as-san-jose-tries-to-regulate-data-centers-residents-want-to-ban-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/498475\/","title":{"rendered":"As San Jos\u00e9 Tries to Regulate Data Centers, Residents Want to Ban Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

As San Jos\u00e9 officials rolled out new proposed data center development standards<\/a>, moving one step closer to enshrining them, residents and environmental advocates staged rallies and packed city hall demanding an outright moratorium on the power-hungry facilities.<\/p>\n

During a community meeting Thursday night, high-ranking city staff members proffered new rules and requirements for future data centers such as requiring recycled water use, aesthetic design enhancements, sound dampeners, limits on backup generator runtime for testing and maintenance, and developer fees for affordable housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the city garnered commendations for its proposals from business groups and union laborers who build data centers, community groups and residents from around San Jos\u00e9 called for a pause on all data center approvals and applications, saying the standards don\u2019t do enough to protect people from risks of air and water pollution, increased local temperatures<\/a> and constant noise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe very least that we could expect is that our government, which is funded by our tax dollars and led by people who we elected to serve us, does not blindly follow corporations and billionaires into the unknown,\u201d Kylie Clark, policy director at the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits, said during a rally before the meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Kylie Clark of the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits speaks during a rally ahead of a community meeting about data centers at San Jos\u00e9 City Hall on Oct. 15, 2026.\u00a0(Joseph Geha\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201cThese decisions are not reversible. They will define our city for generations to come. So our question is, what is the rush? Why in the world wouldn\u2019t we take our time, understand the impacts, and get it right?\u201d Clark said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While other Bay Area cities including San Francisco<\/a>, Oakland<\/a>, Richmond, Gilroy and Oakley have passed temporary moratoriums on data centers out of concern about health and environmental impacts, and to give city officials time to plan out codes and regulations, San Jos\u00e9 has continued a policy of courting data center developers.<\/p>\n

Mayor Matt Mahan, who attended part of Thursday evening\u2019s meeting, has said previously the city should lead the way in helping shape how such significant investments benefit municipalities, and has likened an outright ban on data center development to burying \u201cour heads in the sand.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pledged in an interview last month that the city would set some of the \u201chighest, strictest standards in every category of concern we\u2019ve heard\u201d from residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still listening as we continue to develop those standards, to make them the best standards possible,\u201d Pineda said Thursday at the meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s proposed standards include requirements that data centers use recycled water for cooling the intensive heat put off by racks of processors and servers, or use low-water systems that use air or \u201cclosed-loop\u201d design.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Data centers would need to use completely carbon-neutral electricity, limit the time their backup generators are run for testing or maintenance to only 25 hours per year, as opposed to state rules of 50 hours annually, and must regularly report their water and electricity usage to the city, with third-party verification every five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"San Jos\u00e9 Mayor Matt Mahan watches a community meeting about data center development standards inside San Jos\u00e9 City Hall on Oct. 15, 2026.\u00a0(Joseph Geha\/KQED)<\/p>\n

San Jos\u00e9\u2019s proposed standards also could require sewer discharge and noise monitoring, and would expand the radius for who receives mailed notification cards about a possible data center project to 1,500 feet, from the current maximum of 1,000 feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the meeting, and at rallies before and after outside City Hall, residents expressed outright distrust of city leadership and staff, saying the public engagement process has felt rushed and has resulted in proposed standards that some characterized as weak or a giveaway to AI data center developers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some residents also asked for a moratorium because the limited regulatory reach of the city will not be able to encompass broader concerns stemming from data center development, like the unknown cumulative impacts of having too many in one area, the risk of groundwater pollution from harsh chemicals used in some cooling processes, and even the potential of security risk, citing Ukraine and Russia ramping up attacks<\/a> each other\u2019s data centers this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ted Smith, a longtime resident of San Jos\u00e9, helped lead the charge for a right-to-know ordinance in the 1980s after the semiconductor industry\u2019s<\/a> unrestrained growth led to mass pollution in the county due to mismanaged solvents used in chipmaking, all while leaders of companies like Fairchild and Intel said their industry was a clean one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A man holds up signs during a rally by people demanding a halt to data center development outside of San Jos\u00e9 City Hall on Oct. 15, 2026.\u00a0(Joseph Geha\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\"\"Attendees listen during a community meeting about data center development standards inside San Jos\u00e9 City Hall on Oct. 15, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"Thurston Brevett, of San Jos\u00e9 speaks to city officials about his concerns with data centers during a community meeting inside San Jos\u00e9 City Hall on Oct. 15, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Janet Gray Hayes, at the time, said she was horn-swoggled by the fact that they didn\u2019t understand what was going on. I\u2019m afraid we\u2019re walking right back into that same trap,\u201d Smith told city officials. \u201cI see your standards here; I think you could drive a truck through a lot of those in terms of what they can put over on you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shaf Khan, another resident, agreed, saying they were worried history would repeat itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI live in an area with three data centers already. I\u2019d like to know the impacts of those over a long period of time, especially on young and developing children and expecting parents before we move on with making more,\u201d Khan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bob Staedler, a longtime San Jos\u00e9 land use consultant, said in an interview that the city is being too \u201cchummy\u201d with data center developers, and has tools at its disposal if it wanted to more closely restrict how many are allowed in any one area, such as how it recently put a moratorium on all new smoke shops<\/a> through late 2027 due to concerns about overconcentration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Misrayn Mendoza of community group Amigos de Guadalupe speaks during a rally calling for a data center moratorium outside San Jos\u00e9 City Hall on Oct. 15, 2026.\u00a0(Joseph Geha\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis just seems to just be ignoring the huge issues of our time, where you\u2019ve got things like cumulative concentration,\u201d Staedler said of the proposed data center standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spend more time worrying about weed shops and alcohol and smoke shops than we are going to do with data centers,\u201d Staedler said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the city\u2019s standards would regulate how often diesel or natural gas backup generators can be run for testing and maintenance, they would not apply during a power outage, one of the primary concerns from residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens when there\u2019s a heat wave, as we are constantly experiencing year after year,\u201d Ellina Yin, who closely tracks data center development in the city, said at a rally she helped organize before the meeting. \u201cWhat happens when the power goes out and all of the generators kick on?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As San Jos\u00e9 officials rolled out new proposed data center development standards, moving one step closer to enshrining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-498475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498475","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=498475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}