Data Center Town Hall Follows Moratorium Plea

Town Hall Designed to Provide Information, Seel Feedback on Proposed Data Center

COACHELLA —Five days after Vicente Zamora and Jesus Ahkin Gonzalez started a petition on Change.org, calling for a moratorium on data centers in Coachella, there is movement. The City Council will host a community town hall to provide information and hear from residents regarding the Coachella Municipal Utility.

The town hall is also aimed at providing information on related long-term planning efforts in the city’s eastern development areas.

The petition, which had 689 signatures Wednesday morning, is one of at least three aimed at the data center.

Those seeking a moratorium maintain in their petition that, “Coachella is already one of the most polluted regions in California. We face extreme heat, poor air quality, and the ongoing impacts of the Salton Sea, where toxic dust contributes to high rates of asthma and respiratory illness. Our community is also dealing with chromium 6 in our water, meaning residents are exposed to contaminated drinking water every day.”

The Data Center is planned to be located on a 240-acre technology campus that would be built in the city, a working-class city where 97% of residents identify as Latino. It would be a key part of the city’s ongoing efforts to create its own energy utility.

City officials said they have not yet approved the project and that it will first need an environmental impact report.

At the Town Hall, city representatives will share an overview of the municipal utility, provide a timeline of actions to date, and outline the process for evaluating any potential future projects, as no project has been approved at this time.

The town hall will be facilitated by CV Strategies, a local communications firm, to support a structured and respectful discussion. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions of both city representatives and the developer team and receive direct responses.

The meeting will be held at the Boys & Girls Club of Coachella Valley, 85350 Bagdad Ave. in Coachella on Monday, May 11 from 6 p.n. to 8 p.m.