Indio Extends Data Center Pause Another Year As City Works Toward Permanent Ban

Indio will keep its pause on new data centers in place for another year. City Council unanimously extended the city's moratorium at Wednesday night's meeting, pushing the freeze on new data center projects through Oct. 16, 2027.

The moratorium, first approved in June, stops the city from accepting or approving applications to build, convert or expand data centers, including AI computing facilities and cryptocurrency mining operations. It was set to expire Oct. 16. Under state law, this is the second and final extension the city can approve, according to the staff report.

Water use, electricity demand, pollution, noise and air quality all factored into the decision. The city's Planning Commission recommended a complete ban on data centers in June, and the Sustainability Commission later backed that recommendation.

Staff are now drafting changes to the city's development code that would ban data centers in mixed-use, non-residential and public institutional zones, and would add a clear definition of what counts as a data center.

When Mayor Pro Tem Waymond Fermon asked why the city needed more time instead of addressing a ban sooner, City Attorney Steven Pacifico pointed to the city's specific plans, custom zoning rules written for particular developments or areas that can differ from the city's overall zoning code. Staff are reviewing those plans so any ban covers them too.

"Conceivably you could have a specific plan where they were permitted or conditionally permitted. And that specific plan's language overrides the general rules of the development code," Pacifico said. "We don't want there to be a surprise like that in the future."

He added that because Indio has more than 30 specific plans, he assumes the council wants any ban to apply "across the whole city, not the whole city except for that property there and that property over there."

Pacifico went on to say that the primary time-limiting factors of reviewing the city’s specific plans “require tribal consultation.” 

The pause does not affect ordinary server rooms that support businesses, schools or hospitals, or public safety and utility communication facilities.

The draft changes are expected to go before the Planning Commission later this year, then to City Council. Staff hope to have a permanent ban ready by early 2027, which would replace the moratorium once it takes effect.