San Jose moves to create data center standards amid community concerns

San Jose is pushing ahead to create standards for data centers amid community angst around health and environmental impacts — though advocates said it’s too soon to tell whether these standards will protect residents or fast track approvals.

At the Rules and Open Government Committee meeting last week, Councilmembers David Cohen, Rosemary Kamei, Bien Doan, Domingo Candelas and Vice Mayor Pam Foley unanimously voted to have the city manager come up with uniform guidelines for data centers. These standards would help mitigate environmental impacts, provide a process for community engagement and support cleaner infrastructure, according to the memo written by Mayor Matt Mahan and Councilmembers Peter Ortiz, Candelas and Cohen.