Desert Hot Springs hits pause on data centers, with members open to extending it to two years

Desert Hot Springs is joining Indio and Coachella in pausing data center development. The city council voted unanimously this week to block any new permits, licenses, or approvals for data centers or similar high-powered computing facilities for the next 45 days, giving the city time to study the technology before deciding whether, or where, it should be allowed.

The pause came up now because the city's rulebook simply doesn't cover data centers. According to the staff report behind the vote, Desert Hot Springs' General Plan, Municipal Code, and zoning regulations don't set any standards for things like where a data center could go, how big it could be, how much water or power it could use, noise, cooling systems, or what happens when one eventually shuts down. With no rules in place, the city worried that a developer could apply for a project under current zoning before any safeguards exist, so the council moved to freeze new applications while staff builds those rules from scratch.

Council members raised concerns over heat and water use, saying a data center doesn't make much sense in a desert climate. "I don't think data centers belong in the desert for a simple reason," councilmember Gary Gardner said. "I don't understand quite why a developer would want to put one here when you have a building that generates nothing but heat, and you're spending a lot on electricity and a lot on air conditioning. Why would you put it in a city that gets 120 degrees in the summer?"

Council members said they don't yet have enough information on data centers and hope the pause gives the city time to figure out if Desert Hot Springs is even the right fit, and what a project like that could mean for the community.

Mayor Scott Matas used the meeting to shut down what he called misinformation spreading about other developments in the city, saying nearby projects won't suddenly turn into data centers. "There's a lot of misinformation out there," Matas said. "There are going to be warehouses built near the I-10. That was planned years ago and those are building now. There's misinformation being put out that they can change to a data center like that. That's not true."

Matas also said the city has no active data center proposals on the table right now, though several developers have made inquiries. "There's no one building today," Matas said. "This isn't Coachella. There isn't a project approved, and there isn't a developer waiting for his final approvals to start construction."

Matas expressed frustration that the moratorium decision was put before the council without the planning commission having had a chance to weigh in, though he still voted in favor of the 45-day pause. He said he wants a real study into the technology and to see actual data before the city makes any long-term call, pointing out that data centers could look very different in just a few years. He compared it to cannabis growing operations, which he said once needed enormous amounts of energy that isn't nearly as much of a concern today.

Once the 45 days are up, council members plan to meet again to decide whether to extend the moratorium for up to two years.