Community briefing

The data center fight in Imperial County, California

As of October 1, 2026, Imperial County, California has a data center moratorium in force (action taken Jun 16, 2026; documented end date 2027-06-16).

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

Enactedexpires 2027-06-16status

Jun 16, 2026action taken

Locallevel

45-day urgency ordinance, extended unanimously on Jul 14 by 10 months 15 days — a full year of paused permits while an advisory committee drafts rules (recommendations due Jan 2027)

SourceNews
read 2026-08-04

An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.

The project on the table

Imperial Valley Data Center — Blocked by ban

Operator: Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing LLC · Size: 330 MW

~950,000-1M sq ft AI/ML data center; county supervisors approved it in April 2026 then reversed course, imposing a 45-day moratorium after water-use and air-quality opposition; developer sued over the moratorium.

Next: Blocked by a local ban or moratorium - the project stopped at the ordinance, not at an application. Watch for the ordinance being challenged in court or allowed to lapse.

Latest in the record

2026-07-29 — Judge Anderholt hears arguments in the CEQA case over whether the project requires a full environmental review; a ruling is expected within 90 days. · source
2026-07-28 — Judge Jeffrey Jones hears IVCM's challenge to the county's data center moratorium in Imperial County Superior Court; a ruling is pending. · source
2026-07-14 — The Board of Supervisors unanimously votes to extend the data center moratorium by 10 months and 15 days, blocking new permits until June 2027 while the advisory committee rewrites zoning rules. · source
2026-06-20 — IVCM sues Imperial County in Superior Court challenging the moratorium, arguing the county used a 'manufactured emergency' pretext to reverse its April approval under public pressure. · source
2026-06-16 — The Imperial County Board of Supervisors unanimously approves an urgency interim ordinance imposing a 45-day moratorium on approvals/permits for new or pending data center facilities in unincorporated areas, and creates a Data Center Advisory Committee. · source
2026-06-05 — After reclaimed-wastewater negotiations collapse, IVCM sues the Imperial Irrigation District in Imperial County Superior Court on eight legal claims, seeking roughly 260 million gallons of Colorado River water annually — reversing its earlier pledge to avoid Colorado River water. · source

Full dated timeline on the project tracker.

Source.

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.

Build a full action pack →

Nearby in California

Imperial (4 mi) — Enactedexpires 2027-05-18
Calipatria (23 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
Coachella (71 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
Indio (75 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-16
Escondido (91 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-12
Palm Springs (92 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-10
Desert Hot Springs (97 mi) — Enactedexpires 2028-06-17
Lake Elsinore (119 mi) — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-10-09

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.