To: The City Council of Cathedral City

We, the undersigned residents of Cathedral City, call on the City Council to enact a city-wide ban on data centers by listing them as a prohibited use in the development code and zoning updates that are currently underway.

Neighboring cities like Coachella and Indio have already passed emergency moratoriums on data centers due to the risks they pose on residents’ quality of life. Below are just a few:

Immense Consumption of Water

According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (2025), a single medium-sized data center can consume roughly 110 million gallons of water per year for cooling. As a desert city, we cannot risk jeopardizing our most precious resource. 

Heat Island Effect and Public Health

A recent 2026 research study shows that data centers create intense localized heat waste, warming the surrounding land by up to 16°F. Data centers also place an immense strain on the electrical grid, spiking the risk of summer blackouts. In a city where summer temperatures breach 120°F and air conditioning is a literal life saver, adding to this heat and straining the grid will create a public health crisis that threatens the lives of residents.

Affordability and the Local Economy

Bloomberg reports that wholesale electricity costs have surged up to 267% near data centers over the past five years—costs passed directly to consumers. At a time where rising costs are decimating quality of life, residents cannot afford such an increase in electricity costs and neither can small businesses. If the cost of electricity increases sharply, this not only cuts into the margins of small businesses, it also means residents will have less disposable income to spend at local small businesses.

Cathedral City Council, please protect Cathedral City’s resources and quality of life by revising the development code and zoning update draft to list data centers, and an appropriate definition of them, as a prohibited use in the city.