The Puente Hills Mall, best known as a filming location in Back to the Future, is at the center of a growing fight over artificial intelligence infrastructure in Southern California.
Here's what to know
According to a Capital & Main report published by LAist, redevelopment plans for the 1970s-era City of Industry property call for a 10-megawatt data center alongside two warehouses and a bus transit station.
Residents in nearby communities, including Rowland Heights and La Puente, have pushed back against the proposal, saying additional data centers would add air and noise pollution while raising utility bills.
Rowland Heights resident Falynn Love said she got involved after hearing about the mall plan at a neighborhood meeting.
"We're going to be bearing the cost of these kinds of projects," Love said, pushing to preserve the largely vacant mall as a community "third space" instead of converting it into an industrial complex.
A Gallup poll cited by Capital & Main found that 70% of Americans oppose data center construction in their area.
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Monterey Park became the first U.S. city to adopt a voter-approved data center ban, with 86% of residents approving Measure NDC.
More background
Opponents say the City of Industry is especially difficult to challenge because of its outsized industrial power while having very few residents.
Capital & Main reported that the city stretches 12 miles across the San Gabriel Valley, had 210 residents in a 2024 U.S. Census Bureau estimate, and zones 92% of its land for industrial use.
Capital & Main reviewed public records showing city officials discussing possible data center sites, including Puente Hills Mall, before the City Council voted to permit data centers and battery energy storage systems across nearly the entire city.
Organizer Samuel Brown-Vázquez described it as an "unaccountable city."
AI is increasingly tied to the electric grid. The same computing infrastructure that powers AI tools can help manage demand and optimize clean energy systems, but the data centers behind AI search engines and chatbots also require massive electrical systems, water for cooling, and often battery backup.
At a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting, officials cited strain on grid infrastructure, consumer utility rates, water use, and outdated fire and zoning codes.
What's being done?
No Data Centers San Gabriel Valley — a coalition of residents and at least six community groups — has been organizing teach-ins, art builds, and demonstrations.
Dozens of residents rallied at Peter F. Schabarum Regional Park across from the mall, and another rally was scheduled for Oct. 18.
The coalition has already helped secure temporary moratoriums in El Monte, Montebello, and Baldwin Park.
In Monterey Park, community pressure pushed StratCap, an Australian-owned investment firm, to abandon a proposed 247,000-square-foot data center after grassroots canvassing and protests spurred a city ordinance that paved the way for Measure NDC.
County and state officials have also begun taking action, though not all measures would affect the City of Industry.
Capital & Main reported that Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis introduced a motion on the health and environmental effects of data centers, and the county Department of Regional Planning issued a temporary moratorium on hyperscale facilities in unincorporated communities.
Governor Gavin Newsom also signed laws setting rules on data center water use, electricity costs, land use, and local oversight.
"It doesn't matter what race you are, what background, what religion," Love added. "Everybody is standing for the same thing, and it's community, it's people, it's environment."
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