Data centers in unincorporated Santa Cruz County? Just don’t ask the voters.
That was the majority decision Tuesday by the county Board of Supervisors, which voted 3-2 to beat back a proposal to let voters weigh in on any artificial intelligence data centers that could be built in the future.
While there are not currently any publicly proposed data centers planned for Santa Cruz County, Supervisor Justin Cummings suggested getting out in front of what has been a persistent controversy at the local governmental level in states across the country.
Artificial intelligence data centers, or AI data centers, are similar to traditional data centers that hold electronic storage on servers in a central location, but they use more advanced computing equipment designed to process the large amount of data needed to operate AI systems, according to the technology company Cisco.
AI data centers and similar “high processing” data centers, as they are known, require more energy to operate and generate high heat, which requires a water supply to keep equipment cool.
Cummings suggested crafting a ballot measure that would have let residents vote on any land use or zoning changes that would allow the resource-hungry infrastructure to be built.
The measure, which would have been on the March 2028 ballot if it had moved forward, would not have banned data centers but would have required voters to sign off on any land use changes the Board of Supervisors made related to their construction.
Cummings mentioned the impacts the new technology infrastructure has had on residential neighborhoods, the environment and utility costs in communities where data centers have been built, including persistent noise pollution, contaminated drinking water and soaring electricity prices.
Supervisor Felipe Hernandez supported the idea, but the two were outvoted by Supervisors Monica Martinez, Manu Koenig and Kimberly De Serpa.
Economic benefits vs. concerns
Koenig said he thought it was unnecessary to spend the staff time and cost needed to write the ballot measure. He also argued that smaller-scale “micro” data centers could be beneficial to the county without having the impacts of larger data centers.
Martinez said she did not know enough about the technology to make a decision on Tuesday and requested a follow-up study session be conducted by the board and county staff at a later meeting.
She also said she was wary of ceding the Board of Supervisors’ land use authority to the voters and that the issue could look a lot different in a few years.
The idea of holding a formal study session on AI data centers and their impacts was supported by De Serpa, but no date for that was set. De Serpa said she understood the “hysteria” around the issue but said that she thought the county could see economic benefits from building data centers.
“There could be opportunity there, is all I’m saying,” said De Serpa.