AS ALHAMBRA VOTES ON DATA CENTER MORATORIUM NOV 3, PROP 45 WOULD FAST-TRACK THEM STATEWIDE

USC Professor on Prop 45: “It is going to make it easier to build data centers.”

LOS ANGELES – Alhambra residents join dozens of cities across the country in voting November 3rd on whether to ban or otherwise limit data center development.

After voting to ban data centers earlier this year, Alhambra City Council is giving voters the opportunity to affirm that ban and make it permanent. Alhambra’s Measure DB reads: “Data Centers Prohibited. Shall an ordinance be adopted affirming the Council adopted ban on ‘Data Centers’ by amending the Alhambra Municipal Code to again define ‘Data Centers’ and prohibit them in all zones of the City?”

Proposition 45, on the ballot in Alhambra and statewide, would go in the opposite direction. While local bans would stay in place, Prop 45 would override recently-passed state safeguards and ease the path for data center development statewide.

Proposition 45 is the California Chamber of Commerce’s 41-page ballot initiative that would roll back state environmental protections and weaken the state’s defense against President Trump’s attack on state clean air, clean water and public health laws.

Experts agree that Prop 45’s reduced standards and accelerated timelines for certain development projects would apply to data centers.

“Yes, this ballot prop, if it passes, will make it easier to have development. That development could include data centers. So, this would actually make it easier to build data centers,” said Christian Grose, Director of the USC Democracy and Fair Elections Lab in a recent interview with Spectrum News 1. “It would also make it easier to do other development projects. And so, is it going to mean data centers everywhere? Not necessarily. But it is going to make it easier to build data centers.”

The data center backlash has become one of the defining issues of the 2026 midterms. A Fox News poll in July found 70% of voters oppose building data centers for the purpose of supporting AI in their area.

Prop 45 streamlines environmental review and limits legal challenges for what the initiative deems "essential" projects, including broadband internet infrastructure defined to cover any facilities “that are incidental to and enable” internet services, along with ancillary projects such as power plants. The measure's authors wrote an explicit list of projects excluded from its benefits – including nuclear energy, high-speed rail and jails – and data centers aren't on it. 

If passed by voters, the measure could undermine new community and environmental protections that were recently signed into law. In September, Governor Newsom signed seven bills that his administration called the most comprehensive data center laws in the nation. One of them makes data centers ineligible for blanket environmental exemptions and requires them to show they won't shift costs to ratepayers and puts in place air and water protections in exchange for a streamlined judicial review process.

Because Prop 45 supersedes conflicting laws, data center developers could take advantage of a faster court process without meeting those conditions. If a majority of voters support Prop 45 this November, the law would be almost impossible to amend. Doing so would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature or another statewide vote, and any legislative amendments must “further the purposes” of the measure.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office concluded implementing Prop 45 could cost state and local governments more than $100 million a year.

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