{"id":915,"date":"2026-06-02T10:30:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T10:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=915"},"modified":"2026-06-02T10:30:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T10:30:40","slug":"monterey-park-takes-landmark-vote-on-banning-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=915","title":{"rendered":"Monterey Park takes landmark vote on banning data centers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Residents in the city of Monterey Park will be the first in the nation to vote on a permanent ban on data centers Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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If approved, Measure NDC would prohibit data centers within the city limits and could only be overturned by another vote.<\/p>\n

Yard signs saying \u201cNo Data Center\u201d in English and Chinese with images of dragons line sidewalks in the San Gabriel Valley city. <\/p>\n

As a wave of data center opposition sweeps the country, numerous towns and counties across the U.S. have instituted temporary moratoria and other restrictions on the facilities. But only a handful have instituted indefinite bans, and just four other towns have sent related matters to the ballot. <\/p>\n

Supporters are hoping the vote will set a precedent for the rest of the region, where residents are fighting proposals in Vernon and City of Industry. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about as permanent a ban as we can get,\u201d said Steven Kung, co-founder of the group No Data Center Monterey Park. \u201cWinning Measure NDC would send a huge message to the rest of the San Gabriel Valley about how residents don\u2019t want data centers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ballot measure emerged from the fight against a 247,000-square-foot center proposed in 2024 by the Australian-owned investment firm HMC StratCap for a residential area in Monterey Park. <\/p>\n

The facility would have sat less than 500 feet away from the nearest home and used three times the electricity of the 60,000-person, predominantly Asian American city. <\/p>\n

While the developer touted the potential for jobs and tax revenue, residents expressed concerns about noise and air pollution, rising electricity rates and a potential to lower property values. <\/p>\n

The company pulled its plans in late March following public outcry and a March 4 city council vote to extend a temporary data center moratorium and place a ban on Tuesday\u2019s ballot. <\/p>\n

In a letter to the city council, HMC StratCap said it would pursue a different use for the land and would not engage in a ballot measure fight. <\/p>\n

The city council later banned data centers indefinitely, the first in California to do so, said Mayor Elizabeth Yang. But she\u2019s still been out campaigning for the measure with all four other council members.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a council puts in an ordinance, a future council can reverse it too,\u201d said Yang. \u201cWith the ballot measure, unbanning it is a lot harder because you need the entire city to vote on it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read more Why a loss for Hilton would be a win for Trump<\/a><\/p>\n

The measure proposes the ban \u201cto protect air quality, drinking water resources, and public health\u201d and \u201cprevent impacts to electricity and water rates.\u201d <\/p>\n

While California places third in the country for existing data centers with about 300 facilities, it hasn\u2019t been a hot spot in the recent AI-driven data center boom. High electricity rates, expensive land and regulatory hurdles mean that fewer, and smaller, facilities are currently planned than in Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Illinois or Arizona. <\/p>\n

\u201cMost of California\u2019s data centers are small by today\u2019s standards,\u201d said Shaolei Ren, an engineering professor at UC Riverside who studies how to reduce the environmental impacts of data centers. \u201cTen years ago, they would be medium-sized, but the power demand for new AI data centers has increased a lot.\u201d <\/p>\n

The average operating data center demands 45 megawatts, according to the Washington Post, while the average planned one would draw 430 MW. The one proposed for Monterey Park would have required about 50 MW at peak demand. <\/p>\n

As proposals crop up in SoCal, they\u2019re met with fierce opposition. Montebello, El Monte and Baldwin Park have all enacted temporary moratoria, and Alhambra recently banned data centers as part of a zoning code update. City of Industry, Vernon, City of Commerce and Santa Fe Springs are moving in the other direction, trying to court developers and streamline data center approvals. Community groups are fighting that. <\/p>\n

Outside the San Gabriel Valley, residents of Coachella and Imperial County are showing up in droves to protest local proposals. <\/p>\n

Matthew Shaw, a volunteer with the Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development, who recently published a report on opposition to AI data centers, said a vote to ban them in Monterey Park \u201cwould lead to copycats, partially because so many groups are just opposed to any data center development at all.\u201d <\/p>\n

While there is no formal opposition to Measure NDC, some building trades like Ironworker Local 433 supported the Monterey Park data center when it was still live before city council. Those in the data center industry are lamenting the state of public opinion. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese are multi-billion-dollar assets that are built by multi-trillion-dollar companies. These things will get done,\u201d said Mehdi Paryavi, chairman of the International Data Center Authority. \u201cMy biggest problem is that our industry does not invest enough in community engagement.\u201d <\/p>\n

Paryavi said towns that seek to limit data centers are missing out on thousands of jobs generated by data center construction, operations and customers, as well as faster artificial intelligence speeds and better performance. <\/p>\n

Kung said local community organizers are \u201clooking at the empirical evidence\u201d and seeing a ban as a win. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never seen a city that embraces a data center and is like, \u2018Look how our quality of life has increased, look how all the revenue has gone into citywide improvements,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThat just doesn\u2019t exist.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read more Democratic voters confident California election is secure, Republicans less so, poll finds<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local governments in a few U.S. towns and cities have banned data centers, but Monterey Park could be the first city to ban them by popular vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate"],"yoast_head":"\nMonterey Park takes landmark vote on banning data centers - California Relocation Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=915\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Monterey Park takes landmark vote on banning data centers - California Relocation Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Local governments in a few U.S. towns and cities have banned data centers, but Monterey Park could be the first city to ban them by popular vote.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=915\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"California Relocation Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-02T10:30:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=915#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=915\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b85b48ca4c2015dd056e0e9c18912121\"},\"headline\":\"Monterey Park takes landmark vote on banning data centers\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-02T10:30:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=915\"},\"wordCount\":922,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=915#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/230a8de07454073d1a3aefb991c92a7b-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Climate\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=915#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=915\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=915\",\"name\":\"Monterey Park takes landmark vote on banning data centers - California Relocation Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=915#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=915#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/230a8de07454073d1a3aefb991c92a7b-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-02T10:30:40+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=915#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=915\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/?p=915#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/230a8de07454073d1a3aefb991c92a7b-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/california-relocation-journal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/230a8de07454073d1a3aefb991c92a7b-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1706,\"caption\":\"Monterey Park, CA - April 01: City officials had previously welcomed its plans to build a sprawling, new data center and the jobs and tax revenue that would follow, but suddenly city opposition to the plan spurred up. 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