Vernon, L.A.'s Last Haven for Data Centers, Weighs Environmental Review as LAUSD Fights a Project Next to a School
The industrial city has one data center running and five more in the works; a Nov. 17 hearing will consider making future ones go through public review after its utility stopped taking new requests.
LOS ANGELES — For years, the tiny industrial city of Vernon has been the one place in the Los Angeles area where data center developers could build without a fight. That may be changing. The Vernon City Council will hold a public hearing Tuesday, Nov. 17, on whether future data centers should have to go through public environmental review and sign development agreements with the city, with a vote expected Dec. 15, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
If the council approves the change, data centers would become one of the few industries in Vernon that need environmental review. Most development there is allowed "by right," meaning projects that meet zoning rules don't go through a formal review process.
A Company Town With Six Data Centers
Vernon sits just south of downtown L.A. About 50,000 people commute there every day to work, but only about 300 people live there, according to the Times. While many nearby cities have put moratoriums on data centers, Vernon has welcomed them. One is already running and five more are in the works, the Times reported.
Those projects include a roughly 50-megawatt center being built by CoreSite Real Estate near Vernon Avenue and Alameda Street, a 49-megawatt project planned at 2761 Fruitland Ave., and two Goodman Group projects near the Los Angeles River at Vernon Avenue and Soto Street. One of the Goodman buildings appears almost finished and expects to start operating in February. The other, the 99-megawatt Goodman Energy Park planned for the former Farmer John slaughterhouse site, is seeking an exemption for 40 diesel backup generators from California Energy Commission rules on small power plants, the Times reported.
The Utility Hit Pause First
The first sign of a shift came last December, when the city's power company stopped taking new data center requests. The City of Vernon's website says Vernon Public Utilities "will not be processing new data center project capacity or existing data center expansion requests until further notice," and that the city has no timeline for when it will start reviewing them again.
City staff told the council the zoning review was prompted by community concerns about how much electricity and water data centers use, emissions and noise from their backup generators, and the small number of permanent jobs they create, according to the Times. "We definitely need some regulations for the data centers," Mayor Pro Tem Jesus Rivera said at an October council meeting.
Diesel Generators Near a School
Data centers have to stay online almost all the time, so they rely on backup power, usually from diesel generators that give off soot and nitrogen oxide. The South Coast Air Quality Management District has already approved 52 diesel generators for three data centers within a four-block area of Vernon, the Times reported. Air rules let the generators run during grid emergencies and for up to 50 hours a year of testing.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is fighting one of the newest projects: Digital Realty's planned 217,800-square-foot data center across the street from Vernon City Elementary School, where demolition has already started. The school, Vernon's only one, serves 144 K-6 students with special needs, most of them Latino, according to the Times. LAUSD asked the city as early as an Oct. 1 commission meeting to pause data center approvals near the school and require a state environmental review, Citizen Portal reported.
"It's about being informed about the potential impacts of a development near one of our schools," LAUSD Deputy Supt. Pedro Salcido told the Times, pointing to noise, generator pollution and construction dust. Vernon and Digital Realty say the project is allowed by right. A Digital Realty spokesperson, Richard Hartnett, told the Times the company has "worked hard to communicate openly and transparently" with the city, the school and neighbors.
Neighbors Remember Exide
Communities around Vernon, including Boyle Heights, Maywood and Huntington Park, have long fought pollution from the industrial city. Their best-known win was the 2015 shutdown of the Exide lead-battery recycling plant. "Vernon's current approval process does not protect people's health," Vanessa Vasquez, a volunteer lawyer with Communities for a Better Environment, told the Times.
Business voices are split. If the council adopts the new rules, it would be going against the recommendation of the city's own Business and Industry Commission. Commissioner Miles Solomon, an industrial real estate agent, urged the city to tax data centers instead, calling them "a golden opportunity for Vernon to capture new business and to collect new revenue," while fellow commissioner Brian Baley, who manages the Pabco Paper plant next to the Digital Realty site, backed the zoning change, according to the Times.
The Nov. 17 hearing is the public's chance to weigh in before the council's expected December vote.
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