Fairfield and Vacaville residents organize opposition to data center project

FAIRFIELD – Residents who live near a Northeast Fairfield development project that is under consideration for a 150 MW data center are urging Fairfield City Council members to impose a citywide moratorium that will halt the project’s advancement.

About 30 residents gathered at a community meeting on Oct. 7 and made plans to contact Fairfield City Council members to request that they discuss imposing a moratorium on data centers at the Oct. 20 council meeting. 

On Monday, Fairfield Vice Mayor Pam Bertani announced on social media that she will make a motion for a moratorium on data centers at the Oct. 20 council meeting. Bertani, who is also a mayoral candidate, had previously stated in her campaign materials that she would call for a moratorium as mayor.

San Francisco and Oakland approved temporary moratoriums on data centers earlier this month and the city of Dixon approved a similar moratorium on Sep 30.

At the Oct. 7 community meeting, one of the central concerns voiced by community members was the possibility that the project could be developed “by right,” meaning it could go forward based solely on whether it meets pre-established zoning and planning requirements.

Community member Alicia Minyen, who lives in the Foxboro Knolls area of Vacaville about a half-mile from the project site, spoke at the meeting and presented a series of documents released in a public records request. 

Minyen said that the documents indicate that the city staff has already greenlit the data center project and that she had emailed the Fairfield City Council to express her concern.

In her letter, Minyen cited a City of Fairfield email from Director of Community Development David Zellers to a representative of the project developer, North Point Development. Zellers wrote, “As this relates to a data center use in Planning Area 6, that use has been identified as ‘by right’ and therefore it would not fall under the purview of the review by staff or another body.”   

“Planning Area 6” refers to a Master Planned Unit Development Permit for a 289-acre industrial park with 4.6 million square feet of industrial buildings located near the intersection of Canon Road and North Gate Road in the northeast corner of Fairfield bordering Vacaville. 

The permit was approved by the planning commission on August 23, 2023. It covers broad conditions of development related to utilities, traffic patterns and architectural requirements but further permitting is still required to develop a project in that area.

Fairfield Planning Commission Chair and mayoral candidate George Kennedy, who was among the six members of the Planning Commission who voted to approve the permit in 2023, said during last week’s meeting that at the time, no one had heard of data centers so the possibility that one could be built at the site was not contemplated. 

He said that the developers had envisioned an Amazon warehouse and that the commission had rejected an amendment that would have allowed truck loading bay doors to face the street. 

Kennedy said that when he recently learned that the developer of the industrial park was considering a data center, he realized that the city needed to set guidelines for data center projects.

“We need a policy on data centers to control where they go in this city and how they go in,” Kennedy said. “Because we don't know about the electricity. We don't know about the water. We don't know about the noise. We don't know about the environmental [impacts] because it's changing rapidly.”

Kennedy proposed a policy that would require noise analysis and testing, disclosure of water and power use as well as prioritization of efficient methods and technology.  Kennedy posted a petition for the proposal that has gathered 98 signatures. 

According to Kennedy, any policy or moratorium would not function retroactively, so if the developer were to submit their project application before the policy is approved, then it would not apply to the project. 

Fairfield city spokesperson Bill Way said that the developer has not submitted a formal application for a project. 

Documents released in a public records request made by community member Joseph Joyce, who runs the Facebook page “I’m From Fairfield Too”, indicate that the city of Fairfield Community Development Department has been working with developers on the data center project for over a year and a half. 

Part of that work has involved producing a draft addendum to the existing environmental impact report to accommodate “a new PG&E-owned substation, interconnection, and related appurtenances to support the development of energy-intensive industrial uses, such as data centers or advanced manufacturing uses that may locate within Planning Area 6.”

Gayle Mahoney, who has lived in Fairfield since 1980 and now lives about a mile and a half away from the project site, said that her main concern is the project’s water usage and how the community will be affected in drought years. She added that she is also concerned about electricity use and that the city may be selling residents short.

“We give away too much, bringing new businesses in,” she said. “They get all these property tax credits. I don’t want the project at all but it should at least have to be all solar. Don't give them anything. These are billionaires, right?”

Jason Smith, who lives at the One Lake subdivision which is about three-quarters of a mile from the project site, said that many of his neighbors already purchased at the top of the market, so any lost property value due to a data center is a big concern.

“We were sold a vision here, and that vision was community and peaceful surroundings," Smith said. “This overshadows that vision that we bought into. If you are going to do this in our backyard you need to come to us first.”

Minyen and Kennedy suggested that meeting attendees send emails to city officials and council members expressing their concerns about the project and to show up at the Fairfield City Council Meeting on Oct. 20 to advocate for a data center policy or moratorium.

“We have to be coordinated and make a huge line at council all at once and put the pressure on them to create a policy,” Minyen said.  

According to the organizer of the community meeting, Jeremy Weber, community interest in the data center project was prompted by a Vallejo Sun article that included a set of presentation slides intended to entice investors for the 150 MW data center project.

Weber is a retired U.S. Air Force JAG attorney who lives in the Vacaville subdivision Foxboro Knolls, about a half-mile from the project site. At the close of the meeting he also suggested that community members voice their concerns.

“I'm concerned that Fairfield government does not have their hands around this issue.” Weber said. “If you're equally concerned, based on what you've heard tonight, based on what you've read, and just based on your own spidey sense – public opinion, public pressure works.”