Coachella Residents Get a Say on Massive Data Center Proposal Tonight

Coachella residents will have a chance to speak up tonight on a proposed data center development that has drawn significant pushback from the community.

The city is hosting a town hall from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Boys and Girls Club of Coachella, 85350 Bagdad Ave., where officials will share an overview of the Coachella Municipal Utility and a timeline of upcoming actions. No projects have been approved yet, the city says.

The City of Coachella has brought in an outside communications firm, CV Strategies, to facilitate the town hall. CV strategies says that they have been brought in to “support a structured and respectful discussion.”

At the center of the debate is the Coachella Technology Campus, a proposed development by Stronghold Power Systems Inc. that would cover 240 acres of agricultural land on the city's east side. The plan calls for three data center buildings, each around one million square feet, together generating up to 270 megawatts of power capacity. Developers say the project would bring construction and long-term jobs, generate an estimated $21 million in annual revenue for the city, and support the development of roughly 830 to 850 housing units as part of broader city planning.

Residents, however, have pushed back over concerns about water use, air quality, and the permanent loss of farmland. Stronghold says the campus would actually use about 40% less water than the agricultural operations currently on the site, and that all power would run through dedicated microgrids, meaning it would not draw from the electrical infrastructure serving Coachella homes. The company says each facility would be powered primarily by fuel cells and battery storage, with diesel backup reserved for emergencies only.

Those reassurances haven't fully quieted concerns. Health experts warn that data centers, which are expected to consume nearly 12% of the nation's energy within the next decade, according to the American Lung Association, can worsen ozone pollution through increased energy production and backup generation systems. Riverside County already ranks among the worst regions in the country for ozone pollution, making the stakes especially high for eastern Coachella Valley communities.

After a critical video circulated on social media in April, city officials clarified that the project has not been approved and that the city is not a co-applicant, though they did not further detail their relationship with Stronghold.