R6 Discussion and Possible Action Including Adoption of an Urgency Ordinance of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors Imposing a Temporary Moratorium Prohibiting the Processing and Approval of New Data Center Uses Within the Unincorporated County to Allow for Evaluation of the Public Health, Environmental and Fiscal Impacts and the Enactment of Further and Appropriate Regulations Concerning Such Uses
(Sponsor: County Counsel)
Vote Requirement: 4/5ths
I oppose adopting the proposed data-center moratorium without evidence establishing a current, Mendocino County-specific threat.
The ordinance identifies potential impacts associated with some data centers, but potential impacts are not proof of an immediate local danger. It says the County “anticipates” receiving inquiries and applications, but identifies no pending Mendocino County proposal, proposed location, facility size, water source, electrical requirement, infrastructure deficiency, or other facts demonstrating that an emergency presently exists.
Before prohibiting an entire category of development, the County should disclose:
1. Whether any data center has actually been proposed in Mendocino County.
2. The specific evidence showing that existing permitting, environmental review, utility review, and conditional-use requirements cannot address its impacts.
3. The anticipated water, electricity, noise, emissions, emergency-service, and infrastructure effects under realistic local scenarios.
4. The potential benefits, including construction and permanent employment, tax revenue, infrastructure investment, improved digital capacity, and opportunities for local businesses.
The County should also explain why those potential jobs and economic benefits should be prevented from even being considered in Mendocino County. Data centers vary substantially in size, technology, cooling method, energy source, and environmental impact. A blanket moratorium treats them as though they are all identical.
If a particular proposal would overburden local resources, the County can impose appropriate conditions or deny it based on evidence. It should not declare an emergency first and conduct the supporting analysis afterward.
Please reject or continue R6 until the County presents a documented, balanced, Mendocino-specific cost-benefit analysis demonstrating why a moratorium is necessary.
There is an old saying that an ounce of precaution is worth pound’s of regret. That certainly applies as county governments across the country face a tidal wave of resources dependent data centers burdening their electrical grids, consuming scarce water, and clogging their landfills with pollution. The Board of Supervisors is wise to impose this moratorium and take the time to research, prepare and adopt appropriate guardrail policies to ensure that if data centers are developed in Mendocino County, its done in a fashion that produces minimum harm and optimizes the public benefit.
John Risk, Treasurer and Boardmember
about 1 month ago
My name of John Risk, a member of the Grass Roots Institute's Climate Crisis Workgroup and also a volunteer and Boardmember of Meadow Farm Community Land Trust. I personally make daily efforts to demonstrate sustainable living by conserving water, growing organic food, restoring healthy soils, and promoting carbon-sequestering practices. I applaud the BOS for taking up this urgency ordinance and support its adoption. It appears prudent from reading research like the article linked below from Yale University, it makes sense to delay the process of approving any permit applications for new data centers in the County until County staff have carefully:
1. Evaluated the potential land use, infrastructure, environmental, public health, public safety and fiscal implications of data centers and similar high-intensity computing uses within the County, including but not limited to electricity demand, water use, wastewater demand, cooling systems, backup generation, noise, air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, emergency response, fire and life safety, and compatibility with surrounding land uses;
and
2. consulted, as appropriate, with utility providers, water agencies, fire and emergency service providers, public health agencies, environmental professionals, residents, businesses, and other stakeholders regarding the potential impacts of such uses.
I look forward to each of you on the BOS to support this resolution and direct staff to undertake the research and report back to the BOS and public with their findings.
Please take action on adoption of this Urgency Ordinance. Across the country, communities are putting the brakes on data-center development because they are asking basic questions about water, electricity, infrastructure, environmental impacts, costs to ratepayers, and actual local economic benefits. The big issue is our water and energy resources are not unlimited, and the county's own drought planning recognizes significant vulnerabilities in some communities. Large data centers create substantial electricity demand. And --land is a finite resource, and a data center would not provide greater benefit to Mendocino County than other possible uses—such as housing, agriculture, small business, renewable energy, tourism, or locally focused industries.
For Mendocino County, simply stated again --we need to ask whether committing scarce electrical capacity and potentially expensive infrastructure to a large, energy-intensive facility is the best use of our resources—or whether those resources should support local residents, small businesses, housing, and community needs. A private company needs an enormous amount of electricity to operate a data center. California's own Public Advocates Office is raising essentially this concern about data-center growth and ratepayer protection.The question isn't whether Mendocino County can attract a data center. The question is whether we should. Communities around the country are stepping back and demanding answers about water, electricity, infrastructure, costs, and local benefits. We should learn from what other communities are discovering.In February 2026, Montour County, Pennsylvania, denied a rezoning request for hundreds of acres intended for data-center development after residents raised concerns about environmental impacts and increased power costs.Monterey Park, California — residents actually voted to ban data centers.In August 2026, Texas halted data-center approvals pending audits. The controversy included questions about transparency, infrastructure and who pays for the massive electricity requirements. Brookings reported in July 2026 that at least 100 localities had already approved their own pauses on data-center development, while at least 15 states had considered moratoriums. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/data-center-moratoriums-are-not-a-substitute-for-oversight/
I support a moratorium on permitting data centers in Mendocino County, but question why it would be only temporary and only for 45 days? Is it realistic to believe a thorough evaluation of Public Health, Environment, Fiscal Impacts and the "enactment of further and appropriate regulations" can be achieved in such a short timeframe? There has been plenty of nationwide news coverage vis-a-vis the negative effects of noise and extreme water and electricity consumption associated with these centers. A short timeframe on a moratorium makes no sense! Why would you choose not to go directly to the extension timeframes mentioned in the Agenda Summary and adopt an ordinance which would remain in effect for the longest possible period of time- 22 months and 15 days. Let's give ourselves time to see how these centers play out in other areas. No amount of money is worth compromising our water, air and peace in beautiful Mendocino County. Please vote yes on a longer term moratorium of data centers!
My name is Meghan Durbin, I am a constituent of District 5 (Comptche) and a life-long Mendocino County resident. I work as a land use consultant, a high school sports coach, and a small business owner. I urge my Supervisor (Williams) and all other Supervisors to vote yes on this urgency ordinance establishing a moratorium on permitting Data Centers within the unincorporated areas of Mendocino County.
Data Centers are a current hot button issue for many reasons. My primary concern relates to the unknown nature of Data Center impacts on the land, specifically damage to the environment and impacts to our groundwater supply. I am fortunate to have abundant water on my property, however that is not the case for many Mendocino County residents. Furthermore, the agricultural interests of our residents and county at large must be protected.
The proliferation of media attention and hearsay information about Data Centers is overwhelming and leaves one thing clear – the public doesn’t really know or understand the actual impacts, and no one yet knows the long-term effects.
Far and away the most valuable asset of Mendocino County is the land and location. We have no industry “raising our stock” so to speak. Our product is peace, fresh air, and scenic natural beauty. There are far too many unknowns about the lasting effect of Data Centers. As a popular post on social media has proclaimed “We can live without AI/Data Centers, we have for decades and centuries and millennia. We cannot live without clean, available water.” Mendocino County has survived many years without Data Centers; we can survive without them for as many more months as it takes us to develop sound regulations.
If it is possible to establish a moratorium lasting longer than 45 days, it would be wise. You are all familiar with the strain on our Planning and Building Services Department. While this is a priority issue, business needs to continue along side of it. Intuitively, I don't think 45 days is long enough for PBS staff to develop comprehensive regulation on this topic.
The moratorium is critical to preventing any prospective Data Center developers from establishing new facilities in the County through loopholes that may be present in the current regulations. Considering the economic motivators of AI/Data Centers the moratorium will preclude action by anyone who may seek to blur the lines of what is allowed.
We are an active and engaged community. The public will show up to provide feedback and insight on the real world, day-to-day potential effect of Data Center regulations. The moratorium further provides an opportunity for draft regulations to be published for review and discussion in the appropriate, well-established forums.
Thank you to each Supervisor, your respect for your public and constituents is clear. I am grateful for each of you and the hard work you carry out in assuring your decisions, often exceedingly difficult, are reasonable and fair to the best of your ability. I appreciate the opportunity to comment and that I can trust my input will be considered, along with everyone else who provides comment.
Please vote yes on September 1st to this urgency moratorium so that we can proceed with smart local planning in today’s world.
We very much support adopting an Urgency Ordinance to impose a Temporary Moratorium Prohibiting the Processing and Approval of New Data Center Uses Within the Unincorporated County to Allow for Evaluation of the Public Health, Environmental and Fiscal Impacts and the Enactment of Further and Appropriate Regulations Concerning Such Uses. As well, we support C5, C6 and C13.
Please vote in favor of the urgency ordinance to put a temporary moratorium of at least 45 days on permitting of data centers in Mendocino County. During that period you can together with County staff develop a public policy establishing conditions and requirements for any data center development.
Please adopt the resolution.
As vast as the demand for computing power is now, it will grow at an exponential rate, and local zoning is on the front lines. AI draws enormous amounts of electricity, and requires robust infrastructure to keep it cool and operational. These needs are shaping land use decisions in ways many communities have never dealt with before. Some of these AI centers will need hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per day for cooling alone. This precious water is also very much needed to water our increasing deserts and increasing wildfires. The cumulative carbon emissions from AI models could reach 3.66 to 8.72 million tons in the U.S. alone—the equivalent of driving an average gasoline-powered car nine to 22 billion miles. The solar and wind generators should help people, and not AI centers. The AI equipment generates heat and noise. Every State has different laws or agreements, or none so far. Most are limping behind the times and are just now waking up. There are no clear rules and regulations. What are the cumulative effects? It is scary to think that decommissioned nuclear plants are being brought online to serve AI plants. Many of these AI plants grow like mushrooms and need to be curtailed from the get go. What are the effects on the environment? We don’t know until it is too late.
Anthropic and Amazon are buying up books, feeding them to AI, then destroying the originals. This mass book destruction is a disgraceful corporate scheme to increase profits, and it could violate antimonopoly laws.
Please vote in favor of the urgency ordinance to put a temporary moratorium of at least 45 days on permitting of data centers in Mendocino County.
I oppose adopting the proposed data-center moratorium without evidence establishing a current, Mendocino County-specific threat.
The ordinance identifies potential impacts associated with some data centers, but potential impacts are not proof of an immediate local danger. It says the County “anticipates” receiving inquiries and applications, but identifies no pending Mendocino County proposal, proposed location, facility size, water source, electrical requirement, infrastructure deficiency, or other facts demonstrating that an emergency presently exists.
Before prohibiting an entire category of development, the County should disclose:
1. Whether any data center has actually been proposed in Mendocino County.
2. The specific evidence showing that existing permitting, environmental review, utility review, and conditional-use requirements cannot address its impacts.
3. The anticipated water, electricity, noise, emissions, emergency-service, and infrastructure effects under realistic local scenarios.
4. The potential benefits, including construction and permanent employment, tax revenue, infrastructure investment, improved digital capacity, and opportunities for local businesses.
The County should also explain why those potential jobs and economic benefits should be prevented from even being considered in Mendocino County. Data centers vary substantially in size, technology, cooling method, energy source, and environmental impact. A blanket moratorium treats them as though they are all identical.
If a particular proposal would overburden local resources, the County can impose appropriate conditions or deny it based on evidence. It should not declare an emergency first and conduct the supporting analysis afterward.
Please reject or continue R6 until the County presents a documented, balanced, Mendocino-specific cost-benefit analysis demonstrating why a moratorium is necessary.
There is an old saying that an ounce of precaution is worth pound’s of regret. That certainly applies as county governments across the country face a tidal wave of resources dependent data centers burdening their electrical grids, consuming scarce water, and clogging their landfills with pollution. The Board of Supervisors is wise to impose this moratorium and take the time to research, prepare and adopt appropriate guardrail policies to ensure that if data centers are developed in Mendocino County, its done in a fashion that produces minimum harm and optimizes the public benefit.
My name of John Risk, a member of the Grass Roots Institute's Climate Crisis Workgroup and also a volunteer and Boardmember of Meadow Farm Community Land Trust. I personally make daily efforts to demonstrate sustainable living by conserving water, growing organic food, restoring healthy soils, and promoting carbon-sequestering practices. I applaud the BOS for taking up this urgency ordinance and support its adoption. It appears prudent from reading research like the article linked below from Yale University, it makes sense to delay the process of approving any permit applications for new data centers in the County until County staff have carefully:
1. Evaluated the potential land use, infrastructure, environmental, public health, public safety and fiscal implications of data centers and similar high-intensity computing uses within the County, including but not limited to electricity demand, water use, wastewater demand, cooling systems, backup generation, noise, air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, emergency response, fire and life safety, and compatibility with surrounding land uses;
and
2. consulted, as appropriate, with utility providers, water agencies, fire and emergency service providers, public health agencies, environmental professionals, residents, businesses, and other stakeholders regarding the potential impacts of such uses.
I look forward to each of you on the BOS to support this resolution and direct staff to undertake the research and report back to the BOS and public with their findings.
Yours Truly,
John Risk
https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/data-centers-urban-heat-and-ai-growth
Please take action on adoption of this Urgency Ordinance. Across the country, communities are putting the brakes on data-center development because they are asking basic questions about water, electricity, infrastructure, environmental impacts, costs to ratepayers, and actual local economic benefits. The big issue is our water and energy resources are not unlimited, and the county's own drought planning recognizes significant vulnerabilities in some communities. Large data centers create substantial electricity demand. And --land is a finite resource, and a data center would not provide greater benefit to Mendocino County than other possible uses—such as housing, agriculture, small business, renewable energy, tourism, or locally focused industries.
For Mendocino County, simply stated again --we need to ask whether committing scarce electrical capacity and potentially expensive infrastructure to a large, energy-intensive facility is the best use of our resources—or whether those resources should support local residents, small businesses, housing, and community needs. A private company needs an enormous amount of electricity to operate a data center. California's own Public Advocates Office is raising essentially this concern about data-center growth and ratepayer protection.The question isn't whether Mendocino County can attract a data center. The question is whether we should. Communities around the country are stepping back and demanding answers about water, electricity, infrastructure, costs, and local benefits. We should learn from what other communities are discovering.In February 2026, Montour County, Pennsylvania, denied a rezoning request for hundreds of acres intended for data-center development after residents raised concerns about environmental impacts and increased power costs.Monterey Park, California — residents actually voted to ban data centers.In August 2026, Texas halted data-center approvals pending audits. The controversy included questions about transparency, infrastructure and who pays for the massive electricity requirements. Brookings reported in July 2026 that at least 100 localities had already approved their own pauses on data-center development, while at least 15 states had considered moratoriums. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/data-center-moratoriums-are-not-a-substitute-for-oversight/
I support a moratorium on permitting data centers in Mendocino County, but question why it would be only temporary and only for 45 days? Is it realistic to believe a thorough evaluation of Public Health, Environment, Fiscal Impacts and the "enactment of further and appropriate regulations" can be achieved in such a short timeframe? There has been plenty of nationwide news coverage vis-a-vis the negative effects of noise and extreme water and electricity consumption associated with these centers. A short timeframe on a moratorium makes no sense! Why would you choose not to go directly to the extension timeframes mentioned in the Agenda Summary and adopt an ordinance which would remain in effect for the longest possible period of time- 22 months and 15 days. Let's give ourselves time to see how these centers play out in other areas. No amount of money is worth compromising our water, air and peace in beautiful Mendocino County. Please vote yes on a longer term moratorium of data centers!
Dear Mendocino County Supervisors,
My name is Meghan Durbin, I am a constituent of District 5 (Comptche) and a life-long Mendocino County resident. I work as a land use consultant, a high school sports coach, and a small business owner. I urge my Supervisor (Williams) and all other Supervisors to vote yes on this urgency ordinance establishing a moratorium on permitting Data Centers within the unincorporated areas of Mendocino County.
Data Centers are a current hot button issue for many reasons. My primary concern relates to the unknown nature of Data Center impacts on the land, specifically damage to the environment and impacts to our groundwater supply. I am fortunate to have abundant water on my property, however that is not the case for many Mendocino County residents. Furthermore, the agricultural interests of our residents and county at large must be protected.
The proliferation of media attention and hearsay information about Data Centers is overwhelming and leaves one thing clear – the public doesn’t really know or understand the actual impacts, and no one yet knows the long-term effects.
Far and away the most valuable asset of Mendocino County is the land and location. We have no industry “raising our stock” so to speak. Our product is peace, fresh air, and scenic natural beauty. There are far too many unknowns about the lasting effect of Data Centers. As a popular post on social media has proclaimed “We can live without AI/Data Centers, we have for decades and centuries and millennia. We cannot live without clean, available water.” Mendocino County has survived many years without Data Centers; we can survive without them for as many more months as it takes us to develop sound regulations.
If it is possible to establish a moratorium lasting longer than 45 days, it would be wise. You are all familiar with the strain on our Planning and Building Services Department. While this is a priority issue, business needs to continue along side of it. Intuitively, I don't think 45 days is long enough for PBS staff to develop comprehensive regulation on this topic.
The moratorium is critical to preventing any prospective Data Center developers from establishing new facilities in the County through loopholes that may be present in the current regulations. Considering the economic motivators of AI/Data Centers the moratorium will preclude action by anyone who may seek to blur the lines of what is allowed.
We are an active and engaged community. The public will show up to provide feedback and insight on the real world, day-to-day potential effect of Data Center regulations. The moratorium further provides an opportunity for draft regulations to be published for review and discussion in the appropriate, well-established forums.
Thank you to each Supervisor, your respect for your public and constituents is clear. I am grateful for each of you and the hard work you carry out in assuring your decisions, often exceedingly difficult, are reasonable and fair to the best of your ability. I appreciate the opportunity to comment and that I can trust my input will be considered, along with everyone else who provides comment.
Please vote yes on September 1st to this urgency moratorium so that we can proceed with smart local planning in today’s world.
Sincerely,
Meghan Durbin
We very much support adopting an Urgency Ordinance to impose a Temporary Moratorium Prohibiting the Processing and Approval of New Data Center Uses Within the Unincorporated County to Allow for Evaluation of the Public Health, Environmental and Fiscal Impacts and the Enactment of Further and Appropriate Regulations Concerning Such Uses. As well, we support C5, C6 and C13.
Esteemed Supervisors,
Please vote in favor of the urgency ordinance to put a temporary moratorium of at least 45 days on permitting of data centers in Mendocino County. During that period you can together with County staff develop a public policy establishing conditions and requirements for any data center development.
Please adopt the resolution.
As vast as the demand for computing power is now, it will grow at an exponential rate, and local zoning is on the front lines. AI draws enormous amounts of electricity, and requires robust infrastructure to keep it cool and operational. These needs are shaping land use decisions in ways many communities have never dealt with before. Some of these AI centers will need hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per day for cooling alone. This precious water is also very much needed to water our increasing deserts and increasing wildfires. The cumulative carbon emissions from AI models could reach 3.66 to 8.72 million tons in the U.S. alone—the equivalent of driving an average gasoline-powered car nine to 22 billion miles. The solar and wind generators should help people, and not AI centers. The AI equipment generates heat and noise. Every State has different laws or agreements, or none so far. Most are limping behind the times and are just now waking up. There are no clear rules and regulations. What are the cumulative effects? It is scary to think that decommissioned nuclear plants are being brought online to serve AI plants. Many of these AI plants grow like mushrooms and need to be curtailed from the get go. What are the effects on the environment? We don’t know until it is too late.
Anthropic and Amazon are buying up books, feeding them to AI, then destroying the originals. This mass book destruction is a disgraceful corporate scheme to increase profits, and it could violate antimonopoly laws.
Please vote in favor of the urgency ordinance to put a temporary moratorium of at least 45 days on permitting of data centers in Mendocino County.