A citywide ban on data centers takes effect in Coachella on Friday, thirty days after the City Council adopted it.
Ordinance No. 1231 prohibits data-center uses across the city. The council adopted it on second reading on August 26, after passing a first reading unanimously on August 12.
KESQ, reporting the ordinance, describes a data center under it as a structure or site used to house computers or other equipment associated with the storage, processing or transmission of digital data. The definition reaches further than a warehouse of servers: KESQ reports it also covers storage facilities, small data storage facilities, server farms, artificial intelligence training or processing, image processing, cloud computing and email servicing.
Not every computer-related facility is caught. There is an exemption for accessory server rooms, data-processing equipment and information technology facilities — but only where they are incidental and subordinate to, and specifically associated with, an otherwise permitted principal use. A server room inside a permitted business is one thing; a facility built around one is what the ordinance is written to stop.
The council cited strained electric infrastructure, water supply, noise, and other environmental and land questions.
how it got here
The ban closes a sequence that started in the spring. On June 4 the council unanimously adopted Urgency Ordinance No. 1229, a 45-day moratorium on data centers, and terminated its development agreement with Stronghold Power Systems. That agreement covered the Coachella Valley Technology Campus, proposed on more than 240 acres near Avenue 52 and Fillmore Street.
Council member Denise Delgado said at that meeting that the permanent ban would come as multiple ordinances packaged under one, according to KESQ, which reported her remarks rather than quoting them. Rep. Raul Ruiz submitted a formal letter urging the council to act, and said: “We’d like to send a very clear message that I unequivocally oppose the proposed data center in the city of Coachella. It raises costs. It would worsen the health of, especially our vulnerable populations and for the neighborhoods living near there.”
Stronghold said at the time that it was “disappointed by the City Council’s decision to terminate our development agreement,” that it had come to Coachella “with a project that would provide substantial benefits to the City,” that it would “review the Council’s actions and consider our options,” and that it remained “open to a constructive resolution.” The statement is attributed to Alex Rodriguez, the company’s government affairs advisor.
Residents were still speaking when the ordinance came back in August. A record of the meeting published by Citizen Portal, an aggregator whose pages state that their text is AI generated, says residents pressed for stronger contracting requirements and asked that the ban be put to voters, and that concerns were raised about legal challenges from developers. AICV News has not corroborated that account.
the rest of the valley
Coachella is the first city in the Coachella Valley to prohibit data centers permanently. The others have paused rather than banned. Palm Springs adopted a 45-day moratorium on August 26 — the same day Coachella took its final vote — which expires on October 10. Indio and Desert Hot Springs have approved temporary moratoriums of their own.
what we could not establish
The vote count on August 26. Reporting of the second reading does not give a tally, and the unanimous vote on record is the first reading two weeks earlier.
AICV News has not read the adopted ordinance text. The definition and the exemptions above come from reporting of the ordinance, not from the municipal code itself.
Whether any data-center application is pending in Coachella on the day the ban takes effect. The city has not been asked, and neither has Stronghold Power Systems.