Riverside’s Land Use Committee Tuesday directed city staff to present the full city council with two potential policy options next month that would put a pause on the acceptance, processing or approval of applications related to data centers.
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“I don’t think we can afford to have something like large-scale data centers coming to Riverside,” Councilmember Sean Mill said during the October 13 special committee meeting. “I think it’s important that we get out in front of it before we have a bunch of people lined up.”
The first option, which is set to come before the Riverside City Council November 10, would be to establish an urgency ordinance imposing a temporary 45-day moratorium on the approval of any data center developments that could be extended for up to two years total.
This is the same process cities across the county, including Lake Elsinore, Palm Springs, Indio and Desert Hot Springs, have used to address resident concerns. Coachella also followed a similar trajectory before adopting its permanent ban.
If the council chooses not to move forward with the temporary moratorium, the committee recommended it adopt language prohibiting the city from entertaining data center proposals at this time due to current city code.
Riverside City Planner Laurel Reimer at the committee meeting said the city had not received any data center applications to date. However, she added, if the city were to receive an application, staff had already determined any land use not specifically listed on city code, like data centers, would be considered prohibited.
“If council does not want to move forward with A, then B would be a resolution essentially enshrining what staff has shared with us,” Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes said during the meeting.
The committee decided to move forward with the two proposals after city staff requested clarity on how to best proceed following two separate decisions, one made by the Land Use Committee and the other by the Riverside City Council, meant to address data centers.
The Land Use Committee September 14 directed staff to draft a moratorium on data centers so staff could research and create potential regulations for future city council consideration.
The next day, the Riverside City Council approved the creation of an artificial intelligence (AI) working group tasked with creating citywide policy recommendations on several core areas, including data centers.
“The objective, from my perspective, is: Let this AI working group do the work for the ‘not to exceed 13 months,’ which is what was approved, and see what they come back with,” Councilmember Philip Falcone said at Tuesday’s committee meeting. “But, in the meantime, we just need to ensure that no data centers move forward.”
The Land Use Committee made the recommendations amid a wider conversation about data centers both across the country and in Riverside County.
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