Riverside’s proposed pause on new data centers is headed to the City Council — this time with a backup option if a temporary moratorium cannot secure enough votes.
The council’s Land Use Committee voted Tuesday, Oct. 13, to advance two alternatives: a 45-day moratorium or a resolution affirming staff’s interpretation that data centers cannot move forward under the city’s existing zoning code. A moratorium requires support from six of the seven councilmembers, which prompted the second option.
The discussion and public hearing are planned for 3 p.m. Nov. 10. Neither a new moratorium nor a permanent ban has been adopted.
The action builds on the committee’s September recommendation for a temporary pause while officials develop a definition of data centers and consider permanent restrictions. That earlier recommendation called for 90 days; Tuesday’s discussion clarified that the state moratorium process begins with 45 days.
The debate centers on how facilities housing large amounts of computing equipment could affect Riverside’s electricity supply, water resources and utility bills.
Councilmember Sean Mill brought up these concerns at Tuesday’s meeting.
“My greatest concerns are that we already lack the utility capacity to probably service many of our future endeavors here in the city until we get a second connection to the statewide power grid. And I don't think we can afford to have something like large scale data centers coming to Riverside,” he said.
City Planner Laurel Reimer told the committee that Riverside has not received an application for a data center. Staff currently considers the facilities prohibited because they are not listed among the city’s permitted land uses.
Data centers house servers, storage systems and networking equipment supporting services such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI). The staff report identifies potential concerns including electricity and water consumption, noise, air quality and effects on surrounding neighborhoods.
Mill questioned whether Riverside could accommodate large data centers without shifting infrastructure costs onto residents and businesses. He pointed to the city’s reliance on a single connection to the statewide power grid and its pursuit of a second connection.
Reimer said staff could not determine whether the city had sufficient electricity and water capacity without reviewing a specific proposal. Environmental review would examine a project’s impacts on those resources, she said.
If Riverside eventually allows data centers, the city could establish standards requiring developers to study the impacts and pay for necessary improvements, Reimer said.
She agreed that setting policy before an application arrives would help avoid uncertainty.
“This is definitely the time to be working on creating those policies so that there is no ambiguity moving forward,” Reimer said.
The committee revisited the issue partly because the council approved a separate AI strategy and policy working group on Sept. 15.
Councilmembers Philip Falcone, Steven Robillard and Steve Hemenway serve on that group, which has up to 13 months to complete its work.
Falcone, who also serves on the Land Use Committee, said the two efforts should have coordinated timelines. He supported preventing data center applications from advancing while the working group develops recommendations.
“In the meantime, we just need to ensure that no data centers move forward or applications move forward in those 13 months because of that other work that’s happening,” Falcone said.
Committee Chair Clarissa Cervantes initially suggested a one-year moratorium. A city attorney’s office representative explained that the state process begins with a 45-day moratorium, with extensions potentially bringing the total duration to two years.
The attorney’s office said a moratorium would require findings of a current and immediate threat to public health, safety or welfare, along with support from six of the seven councilmembers.
Riverside’s zoning code generally prohibits unlisted uses, but allows the community and economic development director or a designee to determine that a proposed use is similar to, and no more detrimental than, an allowed use.
The proposed resolution would put the council’s position in writing: Under the code as it currently exists, staff would not issue permits for data centers and would notify the council if a proposal came forward.
The committee directed staff to prepare both options for Nov. 10. Any extension of an adopted moratorium would require further council action.
Falcone had been developing a citywide data center ban before a proposed veterans’ workforce-training partnership brought the issue into sharper focus this summer. He previously told the Gazette that the project accelerated his timeline.
The original partnership with the Institute for Veterans & Emerging Technology Skills (iVETS) and StemWorx Inc. included a second phase exploring a data center operated by StemWorx and staffed by veterans.
The council later approved the training agreement with the data center component removed. That vote authorized no construction, infrastructure or land-use changes, Community and Economic Development Director Miranda Evans said at the time.
On Tuesday, Cervantes said Riverside should act proactively as other cities restrict data centers and developers boxed out of those areas look to Riverside instead. The proposed pause would give the city time to examine its infrastructure and consider what long-term rules should apply, she said.
