California Town Bans Data Centers Permanently In Landslide Ballot Measure
A California town voted to permanently ban data centers Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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.