Monterey Park Makes History

Our City Becomes the First in California to Permanently Ban Data Centers Citywide

Last night, Monterey Park City Council unanimously passed three ordinances permanently banning data centers citywide, making Monterey Park the first city in California to do so. The vote is a powerful rebuke to the unchecked growth of data centers and the harm they bring to the communities where they’re built, including noise, degraded air quality, pollution, excessive water consumption, and damage to property values.

Thank you - our community showed up, and we won. Every email sent to the council, every conversation with a neighbor, every public comment at a meeting, every evening spent in council chambers, every signature on the petition: all of it made a difference. This victory belongs to you.

Photo credit: Andrew Yip

Monterey Park is now poised to become a model for the San Gabriel Valley and beyond for how communities can effectively organize to defeat harmful development.

The council also agreed to research a potential ban on battery energy storage systems (BESS), which share many of the same environmental and safety concerns as data centers.

What’s next?

On June 2, vote YES on Measure NDC to make sure the ban can only be overturned by voters, not a future council.

We need canvassers to spread the word to vote “Yes” on Measure NDC. Please sign up here to help.