ESCONDIDO, Calif. (KGTV) — Escondido Mayor Dane White said no data center developers have approached the city yet, but a moratorium would allow the city to establish guidelines before any applications make their way through the approval process.
"We got to figure out the appropriate places for these things to be or even if we want them at all," White said.
Data centers are large warehouse-style facilities that store and process data for the internet, cloud services and communication networks. They require significant amounts of electricity and water to operate.
The council's approach mirrors its handling of battery energy storage facilities, which were also restricted from being built near Escondido neighborhoods.
Councilman Christian Garcia said the council is drawing on that experience to get ahead of the data center issue.
"We just want to be proactive. We want to think ahead before this actually becomes an issue, and we want to prevent this from being an issue in the future," Garcia said.
JP Theberge, a resident of unincorporated Escondido and vice chair of the Elfin Forest Harmony Grove Town Council, said his area could be affected by large-scale industrial development. He said families in residential areas did not sign up to live next to data centers.
"How are we going to regulate this so it doesn't over impact the communities and the businesses and the hospitals and the other uses," Theberge said.
Theberge said the scale of the facilities is a core concern for residents.
"Families trying to go to school, kids playing in the street, they don't really want to have a massive multi-acre warehouse," Theberge added.
He added that while some zoning may be appropriate for data centers, proximity to communities is a key factor.
"Do data centers belong in these different zoned areas? And I think the answer is some maybe like industrial, but not, not if it's not if you're really next to a community," Theberge said.
City leaders in Poway also started a process last month to prevent data centers from being built there.
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