The Hayward City Council is temporarily halting the development of data centers. On Oct. 20 the city council approved an urgency ordinance that activates a 45-day moratorium. This stops the approval of data centers and gives the city time to work on researching their impacts.
One resident worried about the impacts of STACK, a data center that’s under construction. “I’m very concerned about the new data center that is coming into our community. So about a mile and a half away from my house. From the evidence that we have seen from previous data centers, I’m a little concerned for myself, for my environment, for my home, things from property value, when these data centers come in, from environmental safety concerns, obviously, from water usage, from electrical grid usage. These are all big concerns for us.”
According to the urgency ordinance, water is used to cool off servers that use a huge amount of power. Data centers impact air quality and cause noises from the equipment, like diesel generators.
According to the urgency ordinance, water is used to cool off servers that use a huge amount of power. Data centers impact air quality and cause noises from the equipment, like diesel generators.
The city said a developer confirmed they are interested in potentially building two data centers that would be 90 MW (megawatts) each on Arden Road and Corporate Avenue, a half mile away from the city’s four data centers.
The city plans to take a closer look at how air quality, water use, noise and electricity would be impacted by data centers.
One resident said he wants a stop to new data centers. “I believe that it is a detriment to our community and to our health. If they are gonna throw money at us, they need to subsidize our power, our water and our medical bills, because they are taking that from us. They are making it more expensive on our power and water, and it’s costing our health.”
One resident believed data centers won’t negatively impact the community. “So I think facts matter, critical thought matters and I think the fact is that there is no evidence in California or in the Bay Area that data centers have caused any harm,” he said. “We have CEQA, we have local laws. Those studies have been completed, and they’ve been evaluated to demonstrate that most of the claims made this evening are inaccurate.”
The council can choose to extend the moratorium to 10 months and 15 days, which requires a hearing and decision from the council. That hearing is tentatively set for Dec.1.
