A citywide ban on data centers takes effect September 25, making Coachella the first city in the valley to prohibit them permanently.
The City Council adopted Ordinance No. 1231 on August 26. The decision followed months of debate over electricity, water, noise and other environmental and land-use concerns—and the city’s earlier withdrawal from an agreement for a proposed technology campus.
The ban covers more than large buildings filled with servers. According to KESQ’s reporting on the ordinance, it reaches AI training and processing, cloud computing and other data-center uses.
Some server rooms and related equipment remain exempt. But that exception has conditions.
What the ban covers
KESQ describes a data center under the ordinance as a structure or site housing computers or other equipment associated with storing, processing or transmitting digital data.
Its reporting says the definition also includes storage facilities, small data storage facilities, server farms, AI training or processing, image processing, cloud computing and email servicing.
Accessory server rooms, data-processing equipment and information technology facilities are exempt only when they are incidental and subordinate to, and specifically associated with, an otherwise permitted principal use.
That distinction matters: having a server room does not make a standalone facility exempt. The exception depends on its supporting relationship to a permitted main use.
AICV News has not read the adopted ordinance directly. These descriptions of its definition and exemption come from KESQ’s reporting.
The project agreement ended first
On June 4, the council unanimously approved a 45-day pause on data centers through Urgency Ordinance No. 1229. It also terminated its development agreement with Stronghold Power Systems.
The agreement covered the proposed Coachella Valley Technology Campus, on more than 240 acres near Avenue 52 and Fillmore Street. Its termination preceded the permanent ban by nearly three months.
At the June meeting, Councilmember Denise Delgado said the permanent ban would come as multiple ordinances packaged under one, according to KESQ’s account of her remarks.
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 it was “disappointed by the City Council’s decision to terminate our development agreement” and that it had brought Coachella “a project that would provide substantial benefits to the City.”
The company said it would “review the Council’s actions and consider our options” and remained “open to a constructive resolution.” The statement was attributed to Alex Rodriguez, its government affairs advisor.
From a temporary pause to a permanent ban
The council unanimously passed the permanent ordinance’s first reading on August 12. It adopted the ordinance on its second reading on August 26, with the ban taking effect thirty days later.
Reporting of the final adoption does not give a vote tally. The unanimous vote established in the reporting is the first reading.
A Citizen Portal account of the August meeting says residents sought stronger contracting requirements and asked that the ban be put to voters. It also describes concerns about legal challenges from developers.
Citizen Portal is an aggregator whose pages identify their text as AI generated. AICV News has not corroborated that account.
Other valley cities chose pauses
As of this story’s September 23 reporting, Coachella was the first valley city to prohibit data centers permanently. Three others had approved temporary pauses.
Palm Springs adopted a 45-day moratorium on August 26—the same day as Coachella’s final vote—with an October 10 expiration date.
Indio and Desert Hot Springs had also approved temporary moratoriums. Their inclusion here rests on a sentence in reporting about Palm Springs; AICV News had not read a dated ordinance for either city or established their status beyond the reported approvals.
What remains unverified
AICV News has not established the August 26 vote count or read the adopted ordinance text directly.
We also have not established whether a data-center application is pending in Coachella on the day the ban takes effect. Neither the city nor Stronghold Power Systems was asked.
Those limits remain part of this report: it describes the ban and the sequence leading to it, while distinguishing reported provisions from ordinance text we have examined ourselves.
Update, October 14: Revised the headline and opening, reorganized the article for clarity and added key points. The sources and correction are unchanged. This remains an account based on September 23 reporting, not a new check of other cities’ moratoriums.