An Imperial County judge has halted development of a massive data center complex and ordered county officials to analyze its potential environmental impacts.
Imperial County Superior Court Judge Brooks Anderholt issued the ruling late Wednesday morning. He said county officials illegally shielded the nearly-1 million square-foot data complex from review under the California Environmental Quality, or CEQA, when they signed off on it in April.
The ruling was based on legal challenges against the Imperial County government brought by the city of Imperial and the Sierra Club, a national conservation organization.
“I’m thrilled for the people of Imperial County,” said Mark West, the director of the Sierra Club’s San Diego and Imperial Counties chapter, in a phone call Wednesday. “We want to understand the significant environmental impacts that this project is going to have.”
Imperial City Manager Dennis Morita said he had not yet gotten to review the ruling but said it was a step toward vindicating their position.
Sebastian Rucci, the Huntington Beach-based developer behind the data center project, said he was prepared to appeal the decision.
“We are disappointed but not deterred,” Rucci told KPBS over email. “We will seek a new trial and, if that motion is denied, appeal the ruling on the grounds outlined in our objections.”
Imperial County Chair Peggy Price and county spokesperson Eddie Lopez did not respond to requests for comment.
Wednesday’s decision was a major victory for the growing coalition of Imperial Valley residents, local officials and environmental advocates who oppose local data center development. For months, they have asked the county to study how the project could affect the rural county’s power grid, water supply and air quality.
Rucci, on the other hand, claimed he had designed the project so it would be exempt from those studies. In April, the county Board of Supervisors sided with Rucci, approving a lot merger that paved the way for the project.
Anderholt, however, disagreed with the county’s decision.
The judge’s ruling Wednesday affirmed the tentative decision he issued last month. In that August decision, Anderholt wrote that he saw mounting evidence that the complex could have “significant environmental effects.”
The proposed complex, for example, would also include a giant battery system, a bank of natural gas generators and a new power substation. It would sit directly next to the residential neighborhood of Victoria Ranch.
Anderholt said the county should have analyzed the potential environmental costs or hazards of those elements.
“The court finds the county prejudicially abused its discretion by approving the lot merger without first completing the CEQA review required for the whole project,” the judge wrote.
Rucci had traded arguments with the city of Imperial and the Sierra Club following the judge’s initial decision last week. But lawyers for the county never opposed Anderholt’s tentative ruling.
According to West and a lawyer representing the city of Imperial, Wednesday’s decision will essentially force county planners to restart the approval process from scratch.
On Wednesday, Rucci reiterated his argument that the data center complex would bring economic benefits to the region. A county analysis earlier this year found the project would bring in roughly $12 million in new annual tax revenue.
“Each year we are delayed will cost the area,” he wrote. “Sadly that has been forgotten.”
But Rucci added that his company had identified other potential locations for data centers that sit further away from residential areas. He said they were planning to move forward with planning new projects in those areas.
