Imperial County approved a massive data center. Then it changed its mind.
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The proposed site of a 950,00 square foot data center sits next to the Victoria Ranch housing community and adjacent to farm land in Imperial, on March 12, 2026. Photo by Gina Ferazzi, Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
In summary
A million-square-foot data center became a lighting rod in this rural county. Local leaders filed lawsuits, proposed laws and organized a ballot measure to challenge it.
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In April, developers of the massive Imperial Data Center cleared a major hurdle after Imperial County Supervisors approved a plan to combine several tracts of land for the nearly one-million-square-foot facility in rural Southern California.
It would be the largest data center in the state; the parent company, Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing, LLC describes it as a hyperscale facility, “designed exclusively for advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning operations.”
Last week, that progress came to a halt when the county board walked back its decision, declaring a 45-day moratorium on data centers and forming a public commission to advise the county on zoning policy for the facilities. Their reversal came after months of backlash, and a more than hour-long public hearing in which residents voiced sharp criticism of the sweeping project and its swift approval.
The developer, Sebastian Rucci, said he’s filing a lawsuit to seek a temporary restraining order against the moratorium today, arguing that the county failed to show a true emergency, explain what harms and impacts it will cause, and what specific concerns residents have raised.
“It’s defective,” he said. “The county wrote a moratorium after one year of the approvals. Moratoriums are not there as a planning tool. They’re there for very specific emergencies.”
The conflict over the massive facility reflects the push to build infrastructure for the mushrooming artificial intelligence industry, and Californians’ growing unease with its effects on air quality, water, energy, traffic and more.
Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing, LLC promises that it will produce 2,500 construction jobs and 100 permanent jobs, and generate $72.5 million in a one-time sales tax and $28.7 million in annual taxes. But many residents and local leaders worry that the public health, environmental and economic costs to their rural, working class community could outweigh those benefits.
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Earlier this year, State Sen. Steve Padilla, a San Diego Democrat, introduced a series of bills aimed at data center construction in Imperial County and across California. One of those would revise membership of the Imperial County Air Pollution Control District, to provide stricter oversight of projects that affect air quality in the polluted region. The others would regulate energy use and tighten environmental protections for facilities throughout the state.
This year the City of Imperial filed a lawsuit challenging the data center’s review under the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA. And local voters are gathering signatures for a referendum to ban data centers in the county. Rucci has said his project is permitted under existing zoning for industrial uses, and doesn’t require further environmental review.
“They can’t just come in and claim that they’re exempt and have a right to build the biggest data center in the state without any oversight,” Padilla said at a town hall in El Centro Thursday.
Padilla has been a vocal critic from the outset. In January he urged Imperial County Supervisors to refrain from approving the data center before conducting a thorough environmental review and seeking public input. One of his bills would change the Imperial County air board from its current composition of the five county supervisors to a broader panel of 10 local members, representing the county, city councils, public health, environmental groups, labor and agriculture.
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“I think maybe it’s a good idea to have some people with professional training and credentials in environmental mitigation science,” Padilla said of the proposed change.
Some...