Monterey Park residents to vote on data center ban in June special election

After tabling a proposal for a massive data center in December, Monterey Park leaders will let voters decide the future of similar facilities in the city during June's primary election. 

If approved, Measure NDC will prohibit data centers within the city limits, according to Monterey Park's voter information guide.

The special ballot measure comes after residents voiced environmental concerns about a renovation project that would convert a vacant office building and property into a 250,000-square-foot data center. 

"Primarily, I have concerns about the pollution that would be happening, both physical and noise-wise," resident Tilda DeWolfe said after the City Council tabled the proposal in December.

In the months leading up to the election, city leaders voted to host a special election and placed a moratorium on future data center proposals after hearing residents' concerns. 

"Residents showed up, spoke out, and made it clear they wanted a say in what happens in our city," Mayor Elizabeth Yang wrote in an Instagram post on April 2. "As a Council, we put a moratorium in place and moved forward with a ballot measure so the community could decide. That was always the goal. Now, that decision will be in the hands of Monterey Park voters this June."

Yang said the company that proposed the data center pulled its application and "confirmed they won't be contesting the June ballot measure."

Data centers have catapulted to the national spotlight after the rise of artificial intelligence. The projects promised new construction jobs, but experts told CBS News that such jobs would be temporary.

Critics, similar to Monterey Park residents, raised environmental concerns about the massive facilities. During a congressional hearing in March, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shared Georgia residents' concerns about a data center east of Atlanta degrading their water quality. The congresswoman held up jars of discolored water and said some families had resorted to shipping water to their homes for cooking and bathing. 

Meta, which operates the data center at the center of the issue, said its staff commissioned an independent groundwater study following residents' complaints.