They didn’t hold back.

California voters had their first chance to be heard on data centers. They didn’t hold back.

The Monterey Park ballot measure is part of a wave of opposition rising across the country.

By Noah Baustin

California’s first-ever anti-data center ballot measure is shaping up to be an absolute shellacking for the tech industry — part of a wave of opposition rising across the country, as communities and lawmakers grapple with the frenzied push to build AI infrastructure.

Monterey Park, a city of 60,000 people about 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, placed a measure on Tuesday’s ballot asking voters if they wanted to prohibit data centers in their city. The response, so far, has been an unequivocal “yes,” with 86 percent of votes counted as of Wednesday afternoon in favor of the proposal.

Local officials and environmental organizers said they hope the drubbing will spur other cities to enact similar bans.

“A lot of the other cities that are facing data center proposals are going to follow suit,” Elizabeth Yang, the city’s mayor, said on Tuesday. “There’s [a] bad reputation across the board, across the country, from other data centers that have been built in neighborhoods.”

California is one of many states experiencing an explosion of developer interest in constructing new data centers, which house the physical infrastructure that make up the backbone of the internet.

Tech companies racing to develop artificial intelligence models need the computing power stored in these facilities. But the seemingly endless rows of servers and other equipment that fill their floors use immense amounts of electricity and water, which has made them controversial, and sparked backlash and protests.

The Monterey Park vote represents an extension of that resistance in California, and serves as a successful test of a new model for anti-data center activists.

The text of the city’s measure stated that its aim was to “protect air quality, drinking water resources and public health” and prevent increases to residents’ electricity and water rates, and it came about in response to community uproar over a now-abandoned proposal to build a data center in the city.

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.

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.

But Boender warned that there’s a downside to barring data centers from a community.

The Monterey Park ballot measure would “send a signal that the area is closed for business, both for data centers and for other significant economic development projects,” depriving the region of “jobs and investment,” Boender said ahead of the vote.

But voters split with tech interests during Tuesday’s primary, handing the industry a series of electoral losses.

Meanwhile, other states are grappling with how to respond to the massive AI infrastructure buildout in their own rural communities and cities. On Tuesday, the New York Legislature appeared poised to move forward with a one-year moratorium on new large-scale data centers.

Local activists began pushing for a data center ban in Monterey Park after plans by Australian developer DigiCo Infrastructure REIT surfaced to build one in the city. Opponents voiced concerns about how much electricity and water data centers require, and the potential for diesel backup generators to cause air pollution.

“We don’t want any of them to be built in our area,” Amy J. Wong, a volunteer organizer with the group San Gabriel Valley Progressive Action, said in an interview.

The organizers pressured the city council to implement a data center moratorium and place the referendum on Tuesday’s ballot. Following the city council action, the developer, which did not respond to a request for comment, withdrew its proposal.

Data center opponents in Los Angeles County have scored a series of wins in other small cities around Monterey Park, with city councils enacting their own data center moratoriums in recent months. The nearby City of Industry could be next, according to Wong.

That coming fight is the reason why the Monterey Park vote was significant, she said. “It can send a strong message to neighboring cities and other cities in California, and also across the nation.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Monterey Park vote.