Palm Springs extends data center moratorium to 2028 ⋆ The Palm Springs Post

*Attendees at a meeting in Coachella in May challenged city officials and project representatives over water, noise and climate issues associated with data centers. (Photo: Indio Post)*

The Palm Springs City Council on Wednesday extended a moratorium on approving data center applications and permits through Aug. 25, 2028, giving the city time to write zoning rules for the facilities.

The council first adopted the moratorium on Aug. 26 as a 45-day interim urgency ordinance set to expire Oct. 10. The extension adds 22 months and 15 days, for a total of two years. State law requires a four-fifths vote to extend an urgency ordinance, and the motion carried.

The city’s municipal and zoning codes do not define or regulate data centers, and no zoning standards, setback rules, noise standards, utility demand thresholds or environmental mitigation requirements have been adopted for them.

Planning Director Chris Hadwin said the concerns behind the moratorium include environmental impacts and heavy demands on land, electricity, water and fossil fuels. He also cited “stress on local infrastructure and environmental assets with very limited community benefits.”

The ordinance defines a data center as a structure or site used primarily to store, manage, process and transmit digital data, including server farms, cloud computing and artificial intelligence processing.

Equipment that is secondary to another permitted use, such as servers serving a hospital, office or hotel, is excluded. Hadwin said the definition “is mirroring a national standard and what other cities throughout California and the nation are doing in terms of defining data centers.”

Hadwin said the extension allows city planners time to integrate rules about data centers into the ongoing zoning code update by “establishing development standards, permitted uses, and locations of where these might make sense in Palm Springs, as well as identifying any specific environmental considerations that need to be taken into account,” Hadwin said. The moratorium is meant to be rescinded when the new code is adopted, possibly in the same vote.

Staff also said they will meet with Coachella Valley partners, industry professionals, the tech sector and environmental groups.

Councilmember Jeffrey Bernstein said the definition may need revisiting as the industry changes. He cautioned that gaps could let a project slip through. “We know there’s gray area,” he said.

Councilmember Grace Garner urged those who spoke up at recent meetings about data centers to take more interest in the city’s zoning code update.

“The zoning code in general is a really important document that also impacts the sustainability of our city,” she said, and that it covers all aspects of planning from density and building design to parking. She also encouraged attendance at an upcoming listening session related to heat and shade.