A combination of San Diego politicians, labor groups and housing advocates gathered in front of City Hall on Thursday to voice opposition to a potential data center a local developer is considering as part of a 70-acre redevelopment project at Naval Base Point Loma Old Town Campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen many projects in my time,\u201d San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava<\/a> said. \u201cWhat we don\u2019t need is a resource-guzzling data center in the middle of our city.\u201d<\/p>\n Executives at the Manchester Financial Group<\/a> have emphasized that a possible data center is simply one of a range of options the company has on the table to reshape about 60 acres of the property on the site straddling Pacific Highway, home to Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR).<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re committed to getting the project done for the Navy, and I would be neglecting them if I didn\u2019t look at every single idea that comes up,\u201d company president Ted Eldredge<\/a> told the Union-Tribune on Wednesday. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re looking at all these different alternatives, and the data center was one that came up.\u201d<\/p>\n But data centers have become a red-hot political issue across the country and the mere suggestion of the potential construction of a facility in an urban area of San Diego has sparked pushback.<\/p>\n San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria signed an executive order<\/a> Thursday to direct city staff to advance a temporary moratorium on new data center development within the city limits.<\/p>\n \u201cSan Diego is a city of innovation, and I want us to continue leading in the technologies and jobs of the future,\u201d Gloria said in a statement that was released at about the same time the rally was held. \u201cBut we cannot allow a rapidly expanding industry to get ahead of the rules needed to protect our residents.\u201d<\/p>\n The proposal will be placed on on the City Council docket Monday. The order establishes a working group of up to 15 stakeholders to develop recommendations for water and electricity demand and potential impacts on utility bills, housing and neighborhoods.<\/p>\n Another provision directs the mayor\u2019s government affairs team to develop or support legislation from the impacts of data centers \u2014 including those located on state or federal property outside the city\u2019s land-use authority.<\/p>\n \u201cHere\u2019s the hard truth about NAVWAR,\u201d Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera<\/a> told the crowd of a few dozen. \u201cNAVWAR is federal land. The city can\u2019t stop this project on its own.\u201d<\/p>\n He and others want San Diego\u2019s federal delegation to take action.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, immediately urge the Navy in writing to rule out a data center,\u201d Elo-Rivera said. \u201cAnd second, and most importantly, introduce legislation when the new Congress convenes in January holding leased military land to the same standards that we\u2019re putting forward in San Diego today.\u201d<\/p>\n Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed into law multiple bills passed by the state Legislature to address data center concerns. The new legislation intends to make sure large electricity users are responsible for meeting the costs associated with their energy demand, while protecting existing customers from sudden cost shifts.<\/p>\n Average residential electricity rates in California have grown faster than inflation, and according to the Public Advocates Office<\/a>, San Diego Gas & Electric\u2019s rates have jumped 97% in the past 10 years. Southern California Edison\u2019s average residential rate has climbed 101% and Pacific Gas & Electric\u2019s has risen 69% during the same time frame.<\/p>\n Among the new laws is Senate Bill 886, authored by Sen. Padilla, D-San Diego<\/a>, that directs the California Public Utilities Commission to establish tariffs or rules governing interconnection of data centers to the electric grid.<\/p>\n But Assemblymember Chris Ward, D-San Diego<\/a>, said bills passed in Sacramento have not gone far enough.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that we are realizing how fast this is coming at us,\u201d Ward said after speaking at the rally, \u201cand we have to get ahead of stricter regulations that are going to guarantee that communities will not lose out.\u201d<\/p>\n The Manchester group has floated the idea of a 400-megawatt data center developed by a prospective tenant on the site. But Eldredge told the Union-Tribune, \u201cWe\u2019re not married to that megawattage,\u201d adding that any possible facility is dependent on market conditions and the project\u2019s feasibility.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have all the answers yet,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is the potential that it doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n For perspective, a data center proposed to be built in Imperial County is designed for 330 megawatts of capacity. Expected to cover about 1 million square feet, the Imperial Valley Data Center<\/a> would be the largest data center in California.<\/p>\n But the project is currently on hold after a Superior Court judge brought up environmental concerns<\/a>.<\/p>\n Others worry that housing development will end up getting short shrift at the NAVWAR project.<\/p>\n \u201cNAVWAR is a transit-oriented site,\u201d said Council President Pro Tem Kent Lee<\/a>, chair of the city\u2019s Land Use and Housing Committee<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s adjacent both to the Old Town Amtrak station and the Old Town Transit Center. It must be utilized for mixed-use development with homes not only for San Diegans, but especially to support our many military and veteran families.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Manchester Financial declined to comment about Thursday\u2019s news conference.<\/p>\n Data centers have come under scrutiny following the recent surge in artificial intelligence. The facilities house the massive racks of computer systems required to train generative AI models and chatbots emanating from the cutting-edge technology.<\/p>\n Proponents say AI and its accompanied infrastructure create new jobs and will eventually transform almost every segment of the economy \u2014 and society at large. But critics, among other concerns, worry that electricity- and water-hungry data centers will strain resources.<\/p>\n Within San Diego County, the Poway City Council earlier this month approved an ordinance<\/a> that bans large, third-party data centers used for artificial intelligence applications throughout the city. And the city of Escondido extended a moratorium<\/a> on any potential development of data centers within its boundaries through August 2027.<\/p>\n Energy journalist and author Robert Bryce<\/a> keeps track of communities that have rejected data centers. According to his most recent count, the number in the U.S. has reached at least 370<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A combination of San Diego politicians, labor groups and housing advocates gathered in front of City Hall on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[387,8,6774,181,205,100,13,388,74,76,75,1970,1696],"class_list":["post-504943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-business","tag-california-news","tag-energy","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-real-estate","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-technology","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504943","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=504943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}