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Residents urge Cathedral City to ban large-scale data centers in code update
Summary
Residents and petitioners told the City Council they want large-scale data centers explicitly prohibited in the city evelopment code, citing water use, grid strain and heat impacts. Speakers said neighboring cities already moved to moratoria and urged Cathedral City to act preemptively.
Residents urged the Cathedral City City Council on July 22 to explicitly bar large-scale data centers in the city's forthcoming development code update, saying such facilities are incompatible with local resource limits.
"Please protect our community's water, power, and quality of life by taking the golden opportunity that we have now to ensure that large scale data centers are banned in the updated code," Eric Castillo, who identified himself as representing about 300 petition signers, told the council. Castillo cited studies estimating high water consumption for cooling and warned of grid strain and local heat-waste impacts.
Cara Robinson, a Cathedral City resident, echoed that call and asked the council to learn from nearby cities that enacted moratoria. "Large scale data centers simply do not advance these goals," she said, referring to the city's general plan emphasis on sustainability and responsible growth.
Council members thanked speakers and said staff and the planning commission would continue work on the code update. No formal vote on land-use restrictions occurred that evening; speakers asked the council to ensure the final code includes explicit prohibitions before projects are proposed.
