Santa Cruz County supervisors reject proposal for voter input on AI data centers, tell me about this news in (https://www.ksbw.com/article/santa-cruz-county-ai-data-center-vote-rejected/73750675)

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors considered a proposal introduced by District 3 Supervisor Justin Cummings that would have established an ordinance and a future ballot measure requiring voter approval before any artificial intelligence data centers or high-intensity computing facilities could be zoned, permitted, or built in unincorporated areas of the county.The proposal was brought forward proactively, even though no data center developments had been formally proposed in Santa Cruz County yet. Proponents cited environmental and infrastructure concerns seen across California, specifically regarding high water consumption for server cooling and immense electricity demands that could strain the regional power grid and raise utility costs for local residents. The idea was modeled after similar local protections, such as county restrictions requiring voter consent for offshore oil drilling support facilities.However, the Board of Supervisors voted down moving forward with the proposal. Opposing supervisors raised concerns about over-regulating hypothetical projects before any had been proposed, as well as the practical and legal complexities of placing individual industrial or commercial land-use and zoning approvals on voter ballots instead of handling them through the standard county planning, environmental review, and permitting processes.