In first, California city overwhelmingly votes to permanently ban datacenters | California

Residents of Monterey Park, California, became the first people in the United States to vote to permanently ban data centers on Tuesday, with early results showing the ban has scored a landslide victory.

While many cities and counties have already adopted temporary or indefinite moratoriums through their local governments, Monterey Park would be the first to do so through a ballot initiative.

A ballot measure requires a majority vote (at least 51%) to win. Starting at 2 a.m. Pacific Time, 86.3% of over 7,000 votes counted so far He was in favor of banning data centres. Although it took days to finalize the election results, the huge margin was enough evidence for city councilman Jose Sanchez to claim a “landslide victory” for residents who don’t want to live near data centers.

“[This] “It shows unequivocally that Monterey Park residents do not want data centers in their community,” Sanchez said. “We hope other communities will use the model Monterey Park residents created as inspiration to prevent data centers from infiltrating their backyards.”

Monterey Park’s city council had already passed an indefinite moratorium on data centers in April. Growing anger against HMC StratCapAn investment company seeking to establish an investment company in the Los Angeles area city. (The developers have since withdrawn the application; the project was to cover approximately 250,000 sq ft.)

Residents were concerned about negative environmental impacts, rising utility prices and proximity to homes.

While Monterey County appears to be the strongest district so far, there are several examples of municipalities resorting to ballot measures to combat data centers. in Port Washington, Wisconsin, voters approved A measure that requires local officials to get voter approval before offering tax incentives to data center developers. Residents of Augusta County, Michigan, in August vote in referendum focused on the issue of rezoning 500 acres of land for a proposed data center. Janesville, Wisconsin in November is expected to vote according to a measure empower the city Obtain voter approval before greenlighting any data center project costing more than $450 million.

Nationally, seven in 10 Americans oppose the construction of AI data centers in their local area. According to Gallup’s new survey.

Aldermen in Monterey Park are pursuing a ballot measure to “make the ban on data centers much more permanent,” and that will carry more weight in court as HMC Stratcap has threatened to sue over a possible extension of the moratorium and the ballot measure, Councilman Jose Sanchez said. (The developers have since stated that they will not pursue legal action.)

ballot measure He asked voters to weigh in on banning “citywide data centers to protect air quality, drinking water supplies, and public health, and to prevent impacts on electricity and water prices.” The rule will remain in effect “until it is ended by voters.”

HMC Stratcap has previously said the ballot language was biased. “The proposal is written in a way that would substantially bias voters in favor of the measure,” they wrote in a letter. 4 March letter to the city council.

“Being able to go to court and say the residents of Monterey Park voted to ban data centers is a much better indication of where our residents stand; only five city council members voted for an ordinance,” Sanchez said.

The Data Center Coalition (DCC), a trade association that tracks the development of these facilities across the country, says they are not aware of any other data center-related ballot measures Those approved beyond the Monterey Park and Port Washington proposals. (So ​​has Sanchez.) DCC has defended the expansion of data centers and opposes Monterey Park’s ballot measure, saying it sends “a signal that the area is closed for business.”

“This would deprive local residents of the opportunity to compete for jobs and investment while also causing the region to forgo significant long-term economic investment, high-paying jobs and critical tax revenues to neighboring regions or other states,” said Khara Boender, DCC’s director of state policy.

Local organizers pushing to ban data centers say the city council is sympathetic to their concerns and that the ballot measure was the idea of ​​elected officials. “They took [our concerns] “Seriously, not many city councils are doing this,” said Amy J Wong, co-founder of San Gabriel Valley Progressive Action, a key partner in the No Data Center group in Monterey Park. outside.”

He said organizers needed to act quickly ahead of the vote. Typically ballot campaigns have at least a few months to get started, he said, but they actually only have two months. At that time, they printed 10,000 flyers and sent out mailers in English, Chinese and Spanish. There was confusion about how to vote on the desired outcome, with many residents Wong spoke to already being skeptical of data centers and suggesting the ban was a “no-brainer.” Some didn’t know whether a “yes” or “no” vote would approve the ban on data centers, saying: “We needed to educate some people who thought supporting the ban meant you had to vote ‘no’.”

“I feel pretty confident,” he said a few hours before the polls closed.

Councilman Sanchez was formerly the city’s mayor and currently serves as a high school civics teacher. He stated that the children were paying attention. His students ask him questions all the time about data centers. So is his nine-year-old daughter. He feels like he represents them even if they can’t vote yet. “They listen to me,” he said.

Nationwide reaction

As anger over the facilities powering the AI ​​boom sweeps the country communities are turning to political pressure to stop their spread. They demand that local authorities enact protective regulations and block proposals from data center developers. Residents often feel oppressed by developers, leading to calls for a statewide moratorium. At least a dozen states Although none have been enacted into law, we are considering them this legislative session. The moratorium issue has also become a flashpoint in some gubernatorial races; inside Pennsylvania And GeorgiaChallengers to incumbent governors have taken a more extreme position on regulating artificial intelligence than their opponents, pushing for temporary bans.

California is not currently considering a statewide moratorium on data centers, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer has said withdrew his support for one. The cities of El Monte, Baldwin Park and Montebello are among the communities that have approved temporary bans.