The Imperial County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a moratorium on data centers Tuesday, temporarily halting development of the giant computing warehouses on county land.
The five supervisors’ decision freezes approvals for all data center projects for 45 days. The Board also created a special committee to study land use and zoning for data centers that will report back in January.
The move comes after months of public outcry over a massive data center complex that could consume more power than the entire county used in 2024, and is projected to use around 750,000 gallons of water per day. Residents, environmental advocates and local elected officials have battled to halt the project over fears that it could strain the county’s power grid, water supply and pollute the air.
Tuesday’s move was the strongest warning that county officials have issued to data center developers. For months, the Board had largely remained quiet on the data center project, arguing that their hands were tied.
During the meeting, Supervisor Martha Cardenas-Singh addressed a major concern among critics: that developers had planned the project to avoid an in-depth environmental analysis.
"Facilities of this scale and intensity should not move forward without meaningful public review and discretionary oversight by local government," Cardenas-Singh said.
Sebastian Rucci, the developer behind the project, told inewsource his company was planning to challenge the decision in court.
