The Issue

The City of Industry is quietly transforming itself into a regional data center hub. At least three projects are in the pipeline. Internal emails obtained by community advocates show that city staff have been courting data center developers and dismantling zoning barriers since at least 2024. The zoning changes now being proposed are designed to ensure that once the first data center is approved, nothing prevents the second, third, or tenth.

The consequences of these decisions will be borne almost entirely by neighboring communities that have had no say in the process. To this, we say:

🚫 No amount of mitigation makes data centers appropriate for a city surrounded on all sides by residential communities.

📣 We demand a permanent ban on data center development in the City of Industry. We are not negotiating over conditions of approval. We are not waiting for an EIR to tell us what we already know. We are building a coalition across every neighboring city and unincorporated community to ensure that this ban is adopted. We will pursue it through the County, through the Legislature, and through the courts.

We, the undersigned residents and stakeholders of the surrounding communities, are not submitting a request. We are announcing a campaign. This is a statement of how we intend to achieve a ban on data centers in the City of Industry.

By signing this petition, you are joining a coalition that will use every legal, regulatory, and political tool available to make the cost of forcing these projects through without community consent exceed the profit of building them.

What We Will Do

Every action listed below raises the cost of doing business for the City of Industry. Some target the city directly through legal exposure and regulatory scrutiny. Others put pressure on the people and agencies that have actual leverage over the City of Industry: neighboring city councils that can litigate, county supervisors that can assert jurisdiction, and state agencies that can intervene. Together, they create a web of pressure that no project approval can survive intact.

Force Transparency

File public records requests on every communication between city staff and data center developers. Every document, every email, every meeting will be made public.

Expose the coordinated recruitment strategy that internal emails obtained from public records requests already reveal: city staff advising developers to misclassify data centers as warehouses, the City Manager telling developers the city was "working on a change to our code to pretty much allow data centers anywhere in the city," and the use of publicly funded agencies to build private infrastructure.

Block Every Project Through CEQA

Demand a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for every proposed data center project. Under CEQA, if there is a "fair argument" that significant environmental impacts have not been adequately analyzed, the city is legally required to conduct one.

Submit detailed written comments documenting noise, air quality, energy consumption, water use, traffic, and cumulative impacts. Every comment strengthens the administrative record, and the administrative record is the foundation of every future legal challenge.

File CEQA challenges against every project that moves forward without a full EIR. We are organizing litigation funds across multiple neighboring cities.

Mobilize Neighboring Cities and the County

Petition every bordering city council to take a formal position opposing data center development in the City of Industry without regional environmental review.

Demand that neighboring cities pursue inter-agency review of all data center and BESS (Battery Energy Storage System) proposals with Los Angeles County.

Contact the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and County Counsel to assert jurisdiction over projects with regional impacts on county residents, particularly in unincorporated communities like Avocado Heights, Hacienda Heights, and Rowland Heights.

Escalate to State Oversight

File complaints with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) regarding energy infrastructure expansion planned to serve data center development.

Petition the State Attorney General's office to intervene. This is the same office that previously labeled the City of Industry a "municipal oligarchy."

Request an audit of the City of Industry from the State Controller and the L.A. County Grand Jury.

Build Permanent Public Pressure

Attend City of Industry City Council meetings and deliver public comment opposing data center development. Testimony becomes part of the administrative record.

Organize media coverage to ensure sustained public scrutiny of a city whose "business-friendly" reputation cannot survive it.

Talk with your neighbors. Many residents of the surrounding communities have no idea these proposals exist, because the City of Industry was counting on exactly that.

Why This Will Work

The City of Industry is a billion-dollar municipal corporation with fewer than 300 residents. Petitions addressed to its leadership are meaningless. Its leaders are insulated from electoral accountability and moral persuasion.

But the city is not invulnerable.

It depends on regulatory shortcuts that are legally fragile under CEQA. It is subject to oversight by the State Controller, the Attorney General, and the CPUC, all of which have previously intervened in its governance. It needs permits, approvals, and infrastructure partnerships that can be challenged at every stage. And it depends on neighboring communities staying uninformed and unorganized.

Every signature on this petition is not a plea. It is a commitment to act. Every additional signer expands the coalition that will file the records requests, fund the litigation, pack the council chambers, and pressure every neighboring city to formally oppose these projects. The more people who sign, the more fronts the City of Industry has to defend, the more legal costs it absorbs, and the less viable these projects become.

The City of Industry has operated for decades on the assumption that the people who bear the costs of its decisions will never organize to challenge them. Every signature proves that assumption wrong.

What You Can Do Right Now

Sign this petition and share it. Every signature strengthens the coalition and the public record. By signing this petition you will also get progress updates through a newsletter which will include ongoing actions to take.

Contact your city council and demand a formal position opposing data center development in the City of Industry without regional environmental review. Ask what legal tools they are prepared to use. [one click email - coming soon]

If you live in an unincorporated community, contact the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and County Counsel's office. Demand that the County assert jurisdiction over projects with regional impacts. [one click email - coming soon]

Submit written comments to the City of Industry Planning Division citing specific concerns and requesting written responses. Document everything. [one click email - coming soon]

Talk with your neighbors. The most powerful thing you can do is make sure the people around you know what is being planned. Many residents of the surrounding communities have no idea these proposals exist — because the City of Industry was counting on exactly that. [link to flyers with information - coming soon]

Connect with the community organizations that are part of this coalition to stay informed and coordinate action:

• No Data Centers San Gabriel Valley Coalition (follow on Instagram for regional SGV updates)

• Avocado Heights Vaquer@s (follow on Instagram for updates)

• SGV Progressive Action (follow on Instagram for updates)

• No Data Center MPK (follow on Instagram for updates)

• Visit us online for updates and general information.

If you want to join our coalition reach out to nodatacenterssgv@gmail.com.