Source: Stop Pittsburg Data Center

Not happy with City holding virtual community workshop

By Stop Pittsburg Data Center

Stop Pittsburg Data Center is a coalition of Pittsburg parents, children, teachers, and longtime residents. We are issuing this statement because the city has broken a written promise, and because the decisions that matter most are now happening where residents are not looking.

On June 16, 2026, the City of Pittsburg promised in writing that the data center would return to a regular City Council meeting with public participation and Council direction. Instead, it scheduled a staff-run Zoom webinar on July 30 with emailed questions, no noticed agenda item, no live public comment, and no Council action. The city promised residents a seat at the table. We got a webinar instead. (See related article)

We have deep concerns about bias in the decisions that remain. Among the last approvals standing before construction is BAAQMD air permits for 37 diesel generators near a middle school and sports courts on West Leland Road. Mayor Adams sits on the BAAQMD Board and its Stationary Source Committee, which oversees these permits. And in February, the state Fair Political Practices Commission found that the Mayor, a 24-year PG&E employee, has a legally disqualifying financial interest in the Pittsburg Power Company-PG&E agreement this project depends on. The state ordered her to recuse fully and leave the room, roughly 15 months after the Council’s unanimous approval. These are not suspicions. They are the state’s own findings.

The health numbers deserve scrutiny too. The developer’s own modeling submitted to the California Energy Commission showed a cancer risk of up to 17 in a million, above BAAQMD’s 10-in-a-million threshold (AVAIO Response to Data Request AQ-8, Table 1C, CEC Docket 24-SPPE-01, TN 259481, Oct. 8, 2024). Before issuing any permit, BAAQMD must explain publicly what changed and why the final number should be trusted.

Residents were never given a choice about this land. On August 1, 2017, while the Delta View Golf Course was still open, the city signed an exclusive negotiating agreement with Energy Delivery Solutions LLC for a technology park that, in the city’s own words, “would include one or more data centers.” Nine months later, residents were told the course was closing for economic opportunity. The opportunity had already been chosen. By the time the city announced the results of its resident poll on June 4, 2018, the exclusive agreement had already been in place for ten months. Public input came after the city’s decision to pursue a data center project. In the nine years since, the city never once asked publicly whether this land could generate $2 million a year without this risk, and its own budget shows why: the General Fund is projected to end FY 26/27 with a balance of $3,796. A city this broke cannot drive a hard bargain.

We are asking for three things, and the first two cannot wait. Permits can issue and agreements can be signed at any moment, and every week of silence closes the window residents were promised.

1. The real, noticed Council agenda item the city promised in writing, held before any further approvals or agreements are signed.
2. That BAAQMD evaluate all 37 generators as a single pollution source, with a full health risk assessment and a public comment period, before issuing any permit.
3. An urgency moratorium on new data center applications and approvals, including future phases of the Technology Park, until the city adopts a data center ordinance written with public input. Residents asked for a moratorium on June 15 and have received no answer.

More than 23,000 people have signed a petition opposing this project. We also speak for neighbors who cannot attend daytime meetings, don’t speak English, or lack internet access. They deserve the process the city promised. So does everyone else.

Learn more at StopPittsburgDataCenter.com.

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