The data center fight in Coachella, California
As of October 1, 2026, Coachella, California has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Aug 26, 2026).
Status is derived, not stored — a pause with a documented end date flips to Expired on its own — and the source is right next to the claim.
Status today
Permanent ban: Ordinance No. 1231, adopted unanimously Aug 26, 2026 (first reading Aug 12, also unanimous), prohibits large-scale data centers in all zoning districts, effective 30 days after adoption; accessory server rooms and IT facilities incidental to a permitted use are exempt. Replaces the 45-day moratorium adopted Jun 4 alongside terminating the city's agreement with Stronghold Power over a 400+-acre, six-data-center campus, later extended through Jun 3, 2027. Second California city to ban data centers, after Monterey Park; first in the Coachella Valley. Mayor Figueroa asked staff to explore a ballot measure to entrench the ban. Corroborated by KESQ, NBC Palm Springs, The Riverside Record, MyNewsLA and KVCR.
SourceNews
read 2026-08-29
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
Recent news
10 stories tracked since 2026-05-28 across 4 outlets. 8× Local officials are moving to pause or block the project. 1× Water use for cooling is straining the local supply. Most recent: “Coachella becomes second California city to ban data centers as opposition swells in Golden State” (kvcrnews.org, 2026-08-28).
- Coachella becomes second California city to ban data centers as opposition swells in Golden State
- IE Latino Voices: AI, data centers and environmental justice in Coachella
- Coachella City Council Approves Ordinance Banning Data Centers
- Coachella inches toward ban on data centers with final vote expected at the end of the month
- Coachella residents gather in support of a ban on data centers
- Coachella decides to ban data centers permanently
- Coachella Approves Data Center Moratorium, Ends Stronghold Power Agreement
- Coachella City Council Floats Moratorium on Data Centers as Community Opposition Grows
- Coachella considers moratorium on data centers as community pushes back against proposed tech campus
- Coachella council to vote on data center moratorium amid public outcry
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 10 headlines archived.
What to do next
- Questions to ask at the hearing — force specific answers onto the record.
- Estimate the impact — electricity, water, and rate pressure for any facility size in California.
- Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
- California briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.
Nearby in California
- Indio (4 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-16
- Palm Springs (24 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-10
- Desert Hot Springs (27 mi) — Enactedexpires 2028-06-17
- Calipatria (54 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
- Escondido (66 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-12
- Lake Elsinore (67 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-09
- Imperial (67 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-05-18
- Imperial County (71 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-06-16
All 26 tracked actions in California are on the state page.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
Part of the U.S. data center moratorium tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0.