Pittsburg residents want city to pause data center project

By CBS Bay Area

A crowd of rallygoers gathered near Pittsburg City Hall to speak out against a planned data center. Among them was Amhari Perkins. 

“Don’t want it here in Pittsburg. It’s unfortunate we’re finding out two years later its approval, and I feel like that goes into the language. It was really misleading,” she told CBS News Bay Area. 

Perkins is the co-organizer of “Stop Pittsburg Data Center,” and is especially passionate about her message as a native of the city. 

“I’d appreciate if we could get a moratorium. Just to allow the community some true transparency, seeing that we’re so far along,” she said. 

The city initially introduced the project under the name “Pittsburg Technology Park,” and approved of it in 2024. Some residents said they had no idea it would be anchored by AVAIO Digital’s Perseus Data Center, spanning 337,000 square feet at the former Delta View golf course. 

“I’m not completely against data centers. I think just the placing of this one, that’s where you’re hearing the uproar of the community. It’s going to be placed right in our backyard, so close to our youth,” Perkins said. 

 The closest home to the planned site is 420 feet away. 

“More personal for me, you know just being a property owner, my kids going to school right down the street a little over a mile from the projected facility. Knowing there’s a middle school right across the way, hoping to be able to raise my kids here and this is the environment that they’re going to have to grow up into, I’m just not okay with that,” she said. 

Pittsburg city leaders held a special session on Monday due to growing backlash over the planned data center. While the chambers and the lobby outside the glass doors were packed with mostly critics, there were some supporters also present. 

“Projects like this do more than construct buildings. They give local skilled trade residents like myself the opportunity, the rare opportunity to work near home,” one resident said in support of the project. 

“This project represents real, family-sustaining construction work,” another neighbor said during public comment. 
 

There were cheers and boos as more than 60 speakers took the stand, each having three minutes allotted at the podium. 

Meanwhile, critics have raised concerns about the data center’s environmental impact, water and energy use, and noise. 

CBS News Bay Area reached out to AVAIO Digital, and a spokesperson responded with this statement below: 

AVAIO’s Perseus data center is part of the redevelopment of the abandoned Delta View Golf Course, which has been sitting empty and dried out for years, with wildfires having broken out multiple times in recent years. We are redeveloping it in a way that will provide maintained, landscaped grounds anchored by a data center occupying about 22 of the site’s 76 acres, or roughly 29%. The building’s three-story design is meant to keep the footprint as small as possible, with at least a full football field between the facility and any neighboring home.

This development was approved after years of environmental studies and reviews by multiple state regulatory agencies and the Pittsburg City Council that concluded that there was no detrimental impact on the environment. 

AVAIO focuses on sustainability and compatibility in its data center designs. Our approach here includes a variety of measures designed to achieve these goals:

·  A closed-loop cooling design that consumes no water for cooling

·  Total expected water usage at the facility of less than 4,000 gallons per day, about the same as a single average restaurant and a tiny fraction of what was used by the golf course here before

·  All water used at the facility for everything other than human consumption will be 100% recycled water

·  We are using low-noise fans and additional sound reducing structures to ensure the facility is quiet and does not disturb our neighbors

·  We are paying 100% of the cost of our electrical infrastructure costs upfront

·  We have made legally-binding commitments to purchase green energy credits to make our electricity consumption 100% zero carbon

This project will be an environmentally sustainable and low-impact neighbor with very low traffic and noise, carbon-free electricity, 100% recycled water, and fully self-funded utility infrastructure costs. The city and residents will get millions of dollars in revenue that will support basic city services like police and fire, and hundreds of union construction jobs.  This is a win-win for AVAIO, the city of Pittsburg and Pittsburg residents.”

The city sold AVAIO Digital the property for more than $10 million. Pittsburg would receive $1.36 million annually from property taxes. 

City officials said annually, they could receive anywhere from $6 to $8 million total from the project, including sales tax revenue and a 5% surcharge or fee on power. 

“We definitely have some sales tax and we’re continuing to work on the fee, but the fee will be based on how much power usage,” Darin Gale, the city manager, told CBS News Bay Area. 

The first phase of the data center is expected to be operational by 2027. 

Developers are also planning a phase two and three of the project, that would include employment spaces on 54 acres south of the Contra Costa Canal. 

“They have not applied for a building permit yet (for phase 1). So, they do have designs, they have submitted some of that information to the city, we have not reviewed that. We are not reviewing that until they actually submit an official building permit to the city,” Gale said. 

He added that in an effort to be more transparent, the city will establish a community advisory committee with neighbors, education leaders and stakeholders. 

“They can provide some input into the process as we’re finalizing these last contracts. And if a phase two or phase three were to go forward, they’d provide a framework or a white paper that the council consider as they’re looking at any types of future phases of the project,” he said. 

“We can always do better when it comes to our public outreach. We appreciate the residents coming in and being involved. Encourage residents to stay engaged,” Gale added. “We don’t discourage, we actually encourage.”

But Perkins said that comes too late. 

“Like a slap in the face, and just like we’re being told it’s coming regardless of how much we’ve got organized and voiced our concerns,” she said. 

Meanwhile, the city reassures the public that each future phase of the project requires a public notice, a formal review and environmental evaluation.