Top image: San José Mayor Matt Mahan at a farmers market in April 2026. Photo: Jesse Kornblum / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
San José Mayor Matt Mahan and four City Council members on Thursday proposed pausing approvals of data centers until the city’s new development standards for the energy-hungry facilities take effect, KQED reported.
The memo from Mahan and Councilmembers Pamela Campos, David Cohen, Peter Ortiz and Domingo Candelas goes to the full council on Tuesday, Nov. 17. If approved, it would serve as a pledge that no data center projects will be considered until the council approves the standards, according to KQED. The Planning Commission reviews the standards on Nov. 18, and the council is scheduled to vote on them Dec. 8.
“We’ve done a tremendous amount of work, and I think it would be a betrayal of public trust to allow a project to try to sneak through at this stage,” Mahan told KQED.
The proposal also calls for an urgency ordinance so the standards would take effect as soon as the council adopts them, rather than after the usual 30 or 60 days, KQED reported.
Google’s Alviso project
City officials said Google’s planned research and development facility in Alviso is one of two projects that could have been on track for approval before the standards took effect, according to KQED. The project at 5079 and 5087 Disk Drive would draw 250 megawatts, which San José Spotlight said is enough to power 250,000 households. Google has described the project as a research and development lab; experts told Spotlight the architectural blueprints point to it being a data center.
The proposal came after San José Spotlight reported that Google’s project could be approved ahead of the standards. The Chronicle reported Tuesday on the Alviso project and a related state utility decision due Nov. 19.
Several major data centers or large energy users are planned in North San José and could together draw more than 800 megawatts, KQED reported. San José has 16 data center projects in its development pipeline, according to Spotlight.
What the standards would require
Mahan has called the rules “some of the strictest in the nation.” He told Spotlight they include “requirements for 100% clean energy, closed loop water systems, union labor, monitoring and enforcement of noise restrictions, and bans on NDAs and any public subsidy.”
Under the draft, data center developers would be encouraged to enroll with San José Clean Energy, the city’s renewable power supplier. Diesel backup generators would have to meet the strictest federal emission standards and could run only during power outages. The city would ban open-loop cooling systems that use drinkable water and require recycled water or closed-loop systems instead, according to Spotlight.
“The city must strike a balance between securing economic development and ensuring that growth is responsibly built,” Planning Director Chris Burton wrote in a Nov. 6 memo quoted by Spotlight. “While the proposed standards do not address every concern raised through the community engagement process, they represent that balance.”
Mahan’s approach
Mahan has spent more than a year courting data centers, touting a deal with PG&E to guarantee power and hiring city staff to give developers “concierge-style support,” KQED reported. He has opposed a ban or moratorium.
“I want to set such a high bar that if we lose some projects because they’re not willing to meet that bar, I’m okay with that,” Mahan told KQED. “We’ve got to put the community first; that’s really the goal here.”
Ortiz, who represents District 5 in East San José, said the city is seeing unprecedented developer interest. “This proposed pause is not about stopping development,” he told Spotlight. “It’s about establishing responsible standards, protecting our communities and ensuring that industries benefiting from our city’s resources also contribute to addressing challenges like affordability.”
Critics want more
Environmental groups welcomed the pause but say the standards are too weak. “It would definitely be a positive step,” Alice Kaufman, policy and advocacy director at Green Foothills, told KQED. “We feel that those standards are falling short in a lot of different areas,” she said, especially on air and noise pollution from backup generators and cooling equipment.
Eight environmental and community groups, including Green Foothills, the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter and Alviso in Action, want a longer moratorium. “The moratorium should be long enough to allow the city to conduct studies of the long-term cumulative impacts of the massive scale of data center development contemplated by the city, which are anticipated to triple our energy use,” their joint statement says, according to Spotlight.
The Chronicle has not reached Google for comment on the proposal.
What’s next
- Tuesday, Nov. 17: Council considers the proposed pause.
- Wednesday, Nov. 18: Planning Commission reviews the standards.
- Thursday, Nov. 19: The state Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on Draft Resolution E-5455, PG&E’s agreement to serve the Alviso project.
- Tuesday, Dec. 8: Council vote on the standards.
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