Angels Camp, CA — With a 5-0 vote, the Angels Camp City Council on Tuesday approved a temporary moratorium on the construction of data centers.
It is a similar move to what was directed last week by the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors (5-0) for the unincorporated areas of the county (Angels Camp has its own jurisdictional rules).
Angels Camp city leaders noted that large data centers are a new land use with the rise of artificial intelligence, and there are no existing zoning codes and development standards to address those types of projects.
Data centers use high amounts of electricity and water and require extensive cooling equipment. There are also concerns related to noise and light, as they run 24 hours per day.
A report from Angels Camp City Planning Amy Augustine detailed the logistics, noting, “For the purposes of this discussion, ‘data centers’ are a structure, structures, or site used primarily for the storage, management, processing, and transmission of digital data and that houses computer or network equipment, systems, servers, appliances, and other associated components related to digital data storage, processing, and related operations.”
Augustine added, “Data center uses include data storage facilities, small data storage facilities, server farms, artificial intelligence training or processing, image processing, cloud computing, email servicing, and other similar uses and appurtenant facilities.”
The temporary moratorium in Angels Camp allows time for city leaders to develop a permanent plan to address potential data center construction within the city limits.
Click here to view a story from earlier today about a data center project planned in Amador County.
