A Court Voided Imperial County's Data Center Pause. It Passed a New One.

Imperial County, California, repealed its data center moratorium on October 6 and replaced it the same day. The Board of Supervisors adopted an emergency ordinance setting aside Ordinances 1616 and 1618 to comply with a peremptory writ of mandate from the Imperial County Superior Court, then opened a public hearing and passed a new interim urgency ordinance under California Government Code Section 65858 on a 5-0 vote. The new ordinance again bars approval of data center facilities across the county's unincorporated area.

The ordinances the court set aside had moved quickly. Ordinance 1616 established a 45-day pause on June 16, and Ordinance 1618 extended it on July 15. Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing challenged both in Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturers, LLC v. County of Imperial, Case No. ECU004800. Judge Jeffrey Jones issued a tentative decision in August finding the county had not identified a current and immediate threat to public health, safety or welfare, the standard an urgency measure has to meet. The findings, he wrote, "do not identify the nature of the adverse effect."

The project behind the litigation is the Imperial Data Center, roughly 75 acres near Aten and Clark roads outside the city of Imperial. The developer has described a building of nearly 1 million square feet drawing 330 megawatts, with natural gas backup generation, and has argued the site's industrial zoning makes it a by-right use needing county permits rather than full environmental review. A separate Superior Court decision on September 10, in a suit brought by the city of Imperial, required an environmental impact report and identified potentially significant effects in energy, water, air quality, hazardous materials, noise and land use.

An interim ordinance under Section 65858 freezes approvals, not active construction, and work already permitted continues; a grading permit at the Imperial site was issued earlier this year. The effect lands on what enters the pipeline next. The county's record for the new ordinance cites pending and proposed data center facilities along with requests for determinations that additional projects could proceed as by-right uses inside the Mesquite Lake Specific Plan area. A 19-member Data Center Advisory Committee is reviewing amendments to the General Plan, the zoning ordinance and the specific plans while the pause holds.

What is suspended is a large electrical scope. A 330-megawatt campus carries medium-voltage distribution, substation and switchgear work, standby generation and uninterruptible power supply installation, and the branch work inside the computer rooms, spread across a multi-year schedule. Labor estimates for it diverge sharply. The developer has projected 2,500 to 3,500 construction jobs and 100 to 200 permanent positions; a county consultant put construction employment at 1,600 to 1,700. Either number would be the largest single call on electrical labor the Imperial Valley has seen.

Supervisors Jesus Eduardo Escobar and Martha Cardenas-Singh also asked the board to weigh a ballot measure on future data center development, with a special election priced near $500,000 and a resolution required at least 85 days before any vote. No action was taken on it. For now the county is answering 45 days at a time.