Indio City Council Extends Data Center Moratorium, With Planning Commission Already Recommending A Full Ban

Indio's City Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to extend its moratorium on data center projects, keeping new applications on hold through October 16th while the city works out permanent rules.

Council first paused new data center development in June with an urgency ordinance, giving staff time to study how the facilities could affect the community. That pause came as data centers drew heavy pushback next door in Coachella, where the Planning Commission voted this week to recommend its own permanent ban.

Indio's Planning Commission got there first. Back in June, commissioners recommended the City Council move toward a complete ban on new data centers after hearing from staff and the public. The city's Sustainability Commission backed that call too, telling Council in a letter that large-scale data centers are "environmentally unsustainable" for a desert city already stretched thin on water and power.

Councilmember Oscar Ortiz said the science backs up what residents have been telling the city. "In a time where the data is telling us that we need to drastically reduce our water use in the west of the United States, a time where we're seeing increased impacts of fossil fuels on air quality and climate change, and a time where we're seeing a huge uncertainty around the labor markets due to artificial intelligence, these developments don't fit the needs of what we hope for in a healthy environment that supports a local economy," Ortiz said.

City staff thinks data centers use too much power and water for a region already dealing with drought and tightening supplies from the Colorado River and State Water Project. Staff also pointed to noise, heat, and emergency response concerns tied to the specialized equipment these facilities need.

Wednesday's vote doesn't ban anything yet. It simply extends the freeze on new projects while staff drafts changes to the city's General Plan and development code, options that could range from a full ban to other regulations short of one. Council still has to decide which direction to take once that work comes back.