A California town voted to permanently ban data centers Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Monterey Park residents were displeased with rising utility costs, the centers’ nearness to homes and effects on the natural environment, the Guardian reports. The same report states that an indefinite moratorium on data center construction passed in Monterey Park in April.
Other towns have also issued temporary or indefinite moratoriums on data center construction, Stateline reports. Monterey Park is the first in the United States to permanently ban data center construction.
Eighty-six percent of almost 8,000 voters chose to prohibit data centers.
Monterey Park’s decision comes after proposed data center buildout was expected to use three times as much electricity as the rest of the city and would be less than five hundred feet from the nearest home, the Los Angeles Times reported.
A Gallup Poll taken in March 2026 found that seven in ten Americans would oppose the construction of an AI data center nearby them. Participants cited water usage, effects on quality-of-life and increased cost-of-living as concerns.
Others opposed data center construction due to a more general dislike for AI, especially its potential impact on the job market. Another poll found that out of Americans were the least likely nationality to approve of AI data center construction.
Former Monterey Park mayor and current city council member Jose Sanchez believes that the referendum “shows unequivocally that residents in Monterey Park do not want datacenters in their community,” the Guardian reports.
The Daily Caller News Foundation was unable to reach Sanchez for comment.
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