Coachella, CA
“Not In My Valley” movement forces City Council reversal, moratorium, and developer split
COACHELLA, CA — What began as a grassroots revolt against a little-known municipal utility agreement has turned into one of the most dramatic community organizing victories the Coachella Valley has seen in years. On June 4, just weeks after hundreds of angry residents packed City Hall, the Coachella City Council unanimously voted to halt a massive proposed data center campus and cut ties with its developer — handing a decisive win to the residents who refused to back down.
The council approved a 45-day moratorium on all data centers in the city and voted to terminate its municipal utility agreement with Stronghold Power, the company behind the massive proposed development in the city’s eastern corridor. Cheers erupted outside City Hall after the results were announced.
The Project
The proposal, led by Stronghold Power Systems, would have placed six data center buildings across 240 acres on the city’s eastern edge near Fillmore Street and 52nd Avenue, totaling roughly 3 million square feet and operating between 270 and 300 megawatts of capacity. Developers branded it the “Coachella Valley Technology Campus” and said it would generate $21 million in annual revenue and create hundreds of local jobs. Plans suggested the site could eventually expand to 450 acres.
The seeds of the deal were planted quietly. In February 2026, the City Council approved an agreement making Stronghold the city’s partner in building and operating the Coachella Municipal Utility, a city-owned electric grid intended to serve development on Coachella’s eastern side. The data center campus was the anchor tenant for that utility, and the financial projections tied to the deal depended heavily on the campus moving forward.
Many residents say they had no idea the agreement had been signed until months later, and that’s when the fury began.
The Community Fights Back
Dozens of frustrated Coachella residents gathered at the Boys and Girls Club of the Coachella Valley for a highly anticipated town hall meeting, calling it the first major public forum since the project was presented late last year. Many residents felt the city had attempted to push the plan through with minimal public transparency.
The concerns were visceral and wide-ranging. Resident Ash put it plainly: “The amount of water that this project would use would further contaminate our water, and it would lead to less quantity of our water, and we already have a drought. The amount of energy that six data centers would need on 240 acres would create heat, use so much energy that our prices of electricity will skyrocket, and it’ll cause so much air pollution.”
The site sits directly across from residential mobile home parks and approximately two miles from Valle del Sol Elementary School. For many parents and families in one of the valley’s most working-class communities, that proximity was a non-starter.
Among those organizing opposition was local realtor Elizabeth Humphries, who launched the website NotInMyValley.com after hearing concerns from community members looking for more information, intending the site to educate residents and create a central hub for community engagement. Meanwhile, Stronghold launched its own counter-site, a move critics saw as an attempt to manage a narrative that had already slipped away from them.
A City Council Under Pressure
A May 27 council meeting stretched past midnight as residents pleaded with officials to consider a moratorium. After more than five hours of public comment with all but the developer speaking out against the project the council voted 4-0 to schedule a special meeting to consider a pause or a permanent ban.
One resident captured the community’s anger: “We’re already living in this time where the city of Coachella needs to address our drinking water situation, and they’re introducing data centers during this time. It feels tone deaf. It’s enraging.”
Stronghold CEO Scott Bailey pushed back, insisting critics were spreading misinformation. Bailey claimed the data centers would rely on thermal power using non-potable canal water — not drinking water. But the clarification did little to sway a community that had lost faith in the process.
The Vote — and What Comes Next
At the June 4 special meeting, Mayor Frank Figueroa addressed the crowd before the vote: “We’ve heard people. They want the 45-day urgency ordinance that initiates the moratorium, but also they want the long-term ban and ensuring that this topic will not come back.”
City officials acknowledged that terminating the Stronghold agreement carries a high probability of litigation at taxpayers’ expense but the mayor said community support made the decision clear. “Time and time again this evening, you heard residents saying we’ll stand with you if you terminate this agreement,” Figueroa said.
Congressman Raul Ruiz also submitted a formal letter urging the council to act, stating: “We’d like to send a very clear message that I unequivocally oppose the proposed data center in the city of Coachella. It raises costs.”
For its part, Stronghold issued a measured but pointed statement after the vote: “Stronghold Power Systems is disappointed by the City Council’s decision to terminate our development agreement. We came to Coachella with a project that would provide substantial benefits to the City, built around leading-edge environmental protections. We will review the Council’s actions and consider our options.”
The City Council is expected to revisit the issue on July 9, when officials will consider whether to extend the moratorium and discuss measures aimed at permanently restricting data center development within Coachella.
The Bigger Picture
The battle in Coachella is part of a growing national backlash against large-scale data center development in communities that feel they bear the costs while tech companies collect the profits. For valley residents, the fight is far from over — the Agua Caliente tribe’s proposed 217-acre Desert Mountain View Business Park warehouse project on Highway 111 remains in environmental review, with a joint city-tribal meeting pushed to the fall.
But for now, the people of Coachella are celebrating. As resident James Rodriguez put it outside City Hall on the night of the vote: “I feel like the council did exactly what the mayor said and course corrected. I am extremely excited that the moratorium is now in place and we’re on our way to a ban.”