Coachella Valley Technology Campus

Timeline from the record

Newest first. Record entries come from the filings and reports the registry cites. Coverage entries are headlines from publisher feeds we monitor daily, linked to the outlet; last checked September 14, 2026.

1. June 4, 2026

   Cancelled
   City Council unanimously terminated the Stronghold utility agreement and approved a 45-day data-center moratorium after sustained community opposition. The moratorium was extended roughly 10.5 months on 2026-07-08, and the Planning Commission recommended a permanent citywide data-center ban (two conditions attached) on 2026-07-15, with Council adoption votes scheduled for 2026-08-12 and 2026-08-26. Source: NBC Palm Springs
2. February 11, 2026

   Proposed
   Coachella City Council approved a conceptual Municipal Utility Development Agreement with Coachella Valley Power Services LLC, a Stronghold Power Systems subsidiary; the project never reached the Planning Commission for its own land-use entitlements. Source: KVCR

Opposition and litigation at this site

Yes. Organized local opposition to Coachella Valley Technology Campus in Coachella, Riverside County, California is documented in the public record. Hundreds attended town halls over water use, power costs, air quality, noise, farmland loss, and proximity to Valle del Sol Elementary (about 2 miles).

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: opposed means documented, organized local opposition is the dominant signal on record.

Hundreds attended town halls over water use, power costs, air quality, noise, farmland loss, and proximity to Valle del Sol Elementary (about 2 miles). Former Mayor Steven Hernandez, a recipient of Stronghold campaign donations, pleaded guilty to a felony conflict-of-interest charge in 2026. As of August 2026, no lawsuit was found (unlike the already-tracked IVCM facility in Imperial County). Neighboring Indio is independently pursuing its own data-center ban as part of a regional trend.

Source: NBC Palm Springs

Notes on the record

450-acre, two-phase project (Phase 1: 240 acres, reportedly 270-300 MW across three to six buildings - sources disagree on the building count; Phase 2: 210 acres, up to roughly 600 MW combined) near the Fillmore Street and Avenue 52 intersection in eastern Coachella. The record is listed as cancelled as the closest available status: the city's only concrete agreement with the developer was terminated by City Council on 2026-06-04 and the city is one to two votes (2026-08-12, 2026-08-26) from a permanent data-center ban, though the developer has not formally withdrawn. As of August 2026, no AI/HPC-specific marketing was found anywhere - both the developer and press use generic 'data center'/'technology campus' language; the NBC headline's 'AI data center' phrasing is journalistic shorthand, not developer marketing. Planned around three microgrids and an energy center under a self-supplied municipal-utility model (Coachella Valley Power Services LLC, a Stronghold subsidiary; DMK Project Solutions Services is the named project-management partner); the Imperial Irrigation District separately projected approximately $42M in municipal-utility infrastructure financing - not project capex, so no investment figure is recorded. The recorded planned capacity of 270 MW is the Phase 1 total that Stronghold Power Systems states (three buildings at a rated 90 MW each, per Patch) and does not include Phase 2; GPS Business Insider gives a minimum of 270 MW of capacity and up to 300 MW of electricity demand for Phase 1. As of August 2026, jobs are disclosed only as vague estimates ('hundreds of local jobs'), so no jobs figure is recorded. Only cross-streets are known (Fillmore Street and Avenue 52) - no parcel address confirmed. Coordinates are an approximate road-segment geocode (Avenue 52), not a parcel-confirmed point.

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