A city near Los Angeles appears to be the first in the nation to approve an all-out ban on data centers.

On Tuesday, approximately 86 percent of voters in Monterey Park, a city of 60,000 people about 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, voted to prohibit data centers.

According to The Hill, the measure declares a prohibition on data centers citywide to “protect air quality, drinking water resources and public health” and “prevent impacts to electricity and water rates.”

The Hill explained further:

It comes in response to a proposed data center project in Monterey Park, which was ultimately withdrawn earlier this year after the city council adopted a moratorium on data center construction.

Data center moratoriums and restrictions have gained traction across the country at the state and local level in the face of rising community pushback to the sprawling server warehouses that are central to the AI boom.

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A Wisconsin city passed a referendum targeting data center construction in April. It required large-scale projects that receive tax benefits to secure approval from local voters following the construction of a local data center campus that received tax incentives.

Several state legislatures are also considering data center moratoriums, although none have been enacted so far. State lawmakers in Maine passed a data center ban, but it was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Janet Mills (D).

The New York Legislature also appears poised to pass a one-year ban on data center construction. However, it’s unclear whether Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) will support the measure.

“A lot of the other cities that are facing data center proposals are going to follow suit,” Elizabeth Yang, the city’s mayor, said, according to POLITICO.

“There’s [a] bad reputation across the board, across the country, from other data centers that have been built in neighborhoods,” Yang added.

POLITICO has more:

Monterey Park is believed to be only the second city in the nation to pass an anti-data center referendum, following an April vote in a small Milwaukee suburb (the Data Center Coalition, an industry association, is not aware of any other measures, it told POLITICO). The upswell in opposition has been all the more notable coming in Silicon Valley’s own state, which is an important market for data centers.

“The data center industry will continue to work with California residents, communities, and policymakers to support the responsible development of this critical infrastructure and ensure California remains competitive in the modern economy,” Khara Boender, director of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, said in a statement ahead of the vote.

The result in Monterey Park was a rare piece of bright news for environmental advocates in the state, who suffered a series of setbacks during Tuesday’s primary.

Green groups’ gubernatorial favorite, billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer, trailed both establishment Democratic pick Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton in initial results. And a slew of progressive down ballot candidates appeared poised to lose to opponents supported by the fossil fuel industry.

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Other organizers across the nation have signaled an eagerness to embrace plans similar to the one in Monterey Park, which aim to counter the breakneck race to build infrastructure to support the artificial intelligence boom. That includes a campaign to put a ban on the ballot statewide in Ohio, and local efforts in Georgia, Maryland and Utah.

“What we’re seeing in Monterey Park can be an early step in this being replicated in other parts of the country,” Andrea Vega, a Southern California organizer with environmental group Food & Water Watch, said in an interview.

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