California City Residents Deliver a Brutal Message to Big Tech With a Game-Changing Move
Taking back control.
Monterey Park, California, just made history by becoming the first U.S. city where residents voted to permanently ban datacenters. Early results show a likely landslide victory, with 86.3% of the more than 7,000 votes counted so far in favor of the prohibition. This isn’t just a temporary pause – it’s a full stop, and it’s sending a clear message to Big Tech.
According to The Guardian, the ballot measure needed at least 51% to pass, but the margin was so wide that city councilmember Jose Sanchez didn’t hesitate to call it a “landslide victory.” Sanchez said the vote “shows unequivocally that residents in Monterey Park do not want datacenters in their community.”
He hopes other cities will follow Monterey Park’s lead, using this as a model to push back against datacenter expansion. The ban will stay in place “until ended by voters,” making it one of the strongest local rejections of these facilities yet.
This vote didn’t come out of nowhere
Monterey Park’s city council had already passed an indefinite moratorium on datacenters in April after residents grew furious over a proposal from investment company HMC StratCap. The project would have covered nearly 250,000 square feet, but developers eventually withdrew their application.
Locals were worried about environmental damage, rising utility costs, and the fact that the datacenter would be too close to homes. Sanchez said the ballot measure was a way to make the ban “a lot more permanent” and give it more legal weight, especially since HMC StratCap had threatened to sue over the moratorium.
The measure itself asked voters to ban datacenters citywide to “protect air quality, drinking water resources and public health; prevent impacts to electricity and water rates.” HMC StratCap called the language biased, arguing in a March letter to the city council that it “would greatly prejudice voters in favor of the measure.”
But Sanchez said the vote makes it clear where residents stand. “Being able to go to court and say the residents of Monterey Park voted to ban datacenters is a much better gauge of where our residents are versus only five city council members voted for an ordinance,” he said.
Not everyone is happy about the ban
The Data Center Coalition, a trade group that tracks these facilities, said the ban sends a “signal that the area is closed for business.” Khara Boender, the group’s director of state policy, argued it would “deprive local residents of the opportunity to compete for jobs and investment, while also causing the area to relinquish substantial long-term economic investment, high-wage jobs, and critical tax revenue to neighboring areas or other states.”
But local organizers say the city council listened to residents’ concerns, and the ballot measure was actually the council’s idea. Amy J. Wong, co-founder of San Gabriel Valley Progressive Action, said officials took their worries seriously. “They recognized so many residents are angry, and if they move forward with the datacenter, they could possibly be voted out,” she said.
Organizing the campaign wasn’t easy. Wong said they only had about two months to prepare, whereas most ballot measure campaigns get at least a few. In that short time, they printed 10,000 flyers and sent out mailers in English, Chinese, and Spanish.
Even though many residents were already skeptical of datacenters, some were confused about how to vote. “We had to educate some people who thought supporting a ban means you’re supposed to vote ‘no,’” Wong said. Still, she felt confident as polls closed.
Monterey Park isn’t the only place where residents are pushing back against datacenters
Nationally, seven in 10 Americans oppose building AI datacenters in their local areas, according to a recent Gallup poll. Other cities and towns are taking notice. In Port Washington, Wisconsin, voters approved a measure requiring local officials to get voter approval before offering datacenter developers tax incentives.
In August, residents of Augusta Township, Michigan, will vote on rezoning 500 acres for a proposed datacenter. And in November, Janesville, Wisconsin, will decide whether voters should have the final say on any datacenter project costing more than $450 million.
The backlash isn’t just at the local level. At least a dozen states are considering statewide moratoriums on datacenters this legislative session, though none have been signed into law yet. The issue has even become a flashpoint in some governors’ races. In Pennsylvania and Georgia, challengers to incumbent governors have taken a harder line on regulating AI, pushing for temporary bans.
California isn’t currently considering a statewide moratorium, and gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer has walked back his support for one. But nearby cities like El Monte, Baldwin Park, and Montebello have all approved temporary bans.
Sanchez, who’s also a high school civics teacher, said his students and even his nine-year-old daughter are paying attention to the datacenter debate. “They give me an earful,” he said. It’s a sign that this fight isn’t just about infrastructure. It’s about the kind of future communities want to build. And in Monterey Park, residents just made it clear they don’t want datacenters in theirs.
(Featured image: BalticServers.com)
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