Local & Community
Palm Springs Extends Data Center Ban Nearly Two Years
Palm Springs City Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to extend the city's temporary ban on data centers by 22 months and 15 days, giving the city time to study the facilities and decide whether, and where, they belong in town.
The council first approved a 45-day moratorium on Aug. 26, stopping the city from accepting, processing or approving any applications or permits for data centers. That ban was set to expire Oct. 10. With the extension, the moratorium now runs for a total of two years, the longest allowed under state law.
The ban covers facilities used mainly to store, process and move digital data, including server farms, cloud computing sites and artificial intelligence training or processing centers. It does not affect businesses that keep servers or IT equipment for their own use, like a hospital, hotel or office running its own systems on site.
Right now, Palm Springs has nothing on the books to regulate data centers. According to the city's staff report, there are no rules covering where they can be built, how much noise they can make, how much power or water they can draw, or what environmental protections they would need. City-hired consultants have already started studying data centers, though planning staff say they need more time to understand their benefits and impacts and write regulations as part of the citywide zoning code update already underway.
"Additional time is necessary to thoughtfully and thoroughly review these land uses both internally and with the community," according to the staff report.
The city says the extension won't have any significant cost. The ban could also end before the two years are up, since staff say council would lift it once the zoning code update is finished and data center rules are in place.
By: Harrison Bluto
October 1, 2026
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