SoCal City Decisively Passes First-In-Nation Data Center Ban

A San Gabriel Valley city has passed the nation’s first permanent citywide data center ban by a wide margin. 

More than 86% of voters in Monterey Park voted in favor of the ban as of midday Wednesday. 

The ban, called Measure NDC, prohibits data centers within city limits. Only another citywide vote could overturn it. 

Popular sentiment has been building against data centers in the San Gabriel Valley broadly and especially in Monterey Park, where Australian asset management company HMC Capital had proposed a 250K SF data center project.

HMC withdrew the project application in April, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported. 

The city of roughly 62,000 residents has had a moratorium on new data center projects in place since late January. 

Organized resident pushback led to the city putting a ban on the ballot. 

Data centers have drawn ire nationwide as concerns about their environmental and quality-of-life impacts have grown, spreading in not only California but also in Ohio and New Jersey. 

Georgia, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Vermont have introduced statewide moratoriums, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Seven other states introduced bans that didn’t pass.