The city in California was the first in the USA to vote to ban the construction of data centers – with 86% of votes!

It all started in January when an Australian investment company proposed the construction of a data center of about 23,000 square meters on Saturn Street. Hundreds of residents arrived at the city council meeting that evening, the discussion lasted until after midnight, and “No Data Center” signs in English and Chinese soon appeared around the neighborhood – because Monterey Park is predominantly an Asian-American community and one of the largest centers of the Chinese diaspora in Los Angeles.

Why so much opposition?

Arguments against data centers are nothing new – the same issues are being repeated in communities across the US. Data centers are enormous consumers of electricity, and the costs are often passed on to households through electricity bills. They consume huge amounts of water for cooling. They generate constant noise. And, what excites local residents the most – they bring a few quality jobs in exchange for all of the above.

The largest, the so-called hyperscale data centers consume between 10 and 50 times more electricity per square meter than typical office space, and estimates say that data center consumption in the US could grow to 12 percent of the country’s total electricity consumption by 2028.

It spreads the signal to the industry

The case of Monterey Park is not isolated – cities, counties and federal states across the US are introducing moratoriums and bans, but Monterey Park was the first to make it permanent, by direct vote of citizens. California Senator Sasha Renée Pérez introduced a legislative proposal in the interim that would ban diesel generators in data centers statewide, prevent the shifting of electricity costs to citizens, and oblige tech companies to use local labor.

For Silicon Valley, which is growingć expanding for decades without much resistance, Monterey Park could be a sign that communities’ patience has limits.