I support passing a temporary and permanent moratorium on data centers in Oakland because I don’t want a data center of any size using our resources or reshaping our neighborhoods for the benefit of tech billionaires and real estate developers. I live in West Oakland. I am deeply concerned about the ongoing environmental racism in Oakland, and allowing data centers in our city would just add to the blight and environmental impact decades of environmental racism has had on DT Oakland and West Oakland. I also worry about the increase in energy costs and loss of jobs that comes with AI. The current proposed data center might be "small" compared to others; however opening the door to a "small" data center, opens doors to others. No matter the size of data center; it is all fueling the climate crisis and we cannot afford that. No data centers in Oakland. Please support this moratorium and make it permanent.

As a D1 resident of Oakland, I support this moratorium and want to thank CM Fife for introducing this. I am concerned about the impacts of data centers, especially in neighborhoods like D3. This moratorium would allow us to learn more about the proposed projects and have the ability to make agreements that best serve Oakland and its residents.

I support the moratorium on data centers. I am concerned about the impacts that a data center could have in Oakland and I feel that this moratorium will give us all time to learn more and work to reach agreements that would both protect and benefit Oakland's communities. Please vote yes on the moratorium. Thank you to CM Fife for introducing this!

I am definitely in favor of imposing the greatest possible scrutiny upon data centers. This is not only for all of the environmental reasons which you must be hearing about, but also because I am very concerned about the surveillance society which we are becoming. It is not at all clear to me that these projects will benefit anyone other than the companies proposing them. I will mention that I have a master’s degree in economic & statistics, have programmed in two computer languages, & am not hostile to quantitative analysis. I realize that Oakland cannot stop the data center boom all by itself, but I argue that it does not have to contribute to it.

As a D3 resident of Oakland I support this moratorium. The city does not currently have the information it needs to make informed decisions about the approval of ai data centers. Given the negative impact that they have enacted on communities across the US as it relates to water, noise and pollution and given their disregard for transparency as evidenced by the NDA's they engage in, it is imperative that Oakland does a full review of potential impacts for AI data centers small and large.

Communities across the country are being impacted by the completely unregulated deployment of massive data center projects that will strain our water resources, spike our energy bills, and worsen the climate crisis.

As a community already living with extensive pollution, we need Oakland City Council to take bold action to stop new data centers from coming to town. Without immediate action, AI will continue to guzzle water unsustainably, keep fossil fuels online, drive more pollution, and raise electricity costs amid today’s cost-of-living crisis.

I support passing a moratorium on data centers in the City of Oakland and urge the Committee to do the same.

I oppose approving this data-center moratorium today. I am not dismissing data-center impacts or the environmental burdens experienced in West and East Oakland. My concern is that the record lacks the Oakland-specific information needed to justify an immediate citywide moratorium.

The report does not include a complete inventory of existing and proposed data centers, their locations, energy and water demands, backup generators, or wastewater impacts. Nor does it explain what gap in existing permitting and environmental review requires a moratorium while permanent standards are developed. Historical pollution concerns matter, but the analysis should use current BAAQMD and CARB data, acknowledge both progress and remaining disparities, and evaluate impacts by location and facility type.

Oakland faces serious budget deficits. Council should first direct City staff to prepare a public baseline assessment and consult BAAQMD, CARB, EBMUD, PG&E, the Port, and affected communities. In-house staff understand Oakland’s neighborhoods, infrastructure, permitting system, and General Plan. Consultants should be limited to specialized technical or legal gaps that staff cannot reasonably address.

I ask the Committee to continue this item, build the factual record, and return with clear options and measurable standards​ before going to full council. If the evidence shows an immediate risk, Council can then consider a focused, time-limited, and fiscally responsible moratorium.

I support the moratorium and want to see it expanded to cover autonomous vehicles and autonomous robotics development like the Tesla and Prometheus AI projects expected to go into the American Steel warehouse building on Mandela Parkway in West Oakland. If the current data center moratorium under consideration can't be expanded to cover these types of developments then another parallel moratorium should be developed as soon as possible, given the well-articulated concerns others shared below. We all want and need safe and stable housing, good food, stability and well-being which none of these developments will contribute to in any way.

I support a moratorium on data centers, and support adding ban on AI for military and industrial use, autonomous vehicles, and robotics. Stop the automation of industrial jobs in Oakland.

The only people these will enrich are the real estate lobby, the military industry, and VCs. These types of companies are explicitly trying to automate and take away jobs. Specifically industrial jobs. While jacking up our rent and utilities bill. And fueling military takeover and genocide.

Not to mention a slap in the face to the legacy of neighborhoods like West Oakland - taken over by robotics and military companies like:
- Bezos' Prometheus AI - automating the industrial economy that built Oakland
- Longshot Space Technologies, building quote “the world’s largest gun.”
I wonder who will be the first testing grounds for these dangerous technologies - in the majority black/brown neighborhoods of Oakland.

This is dangerous for the people of Oakland. Autonomous vehicles famously killed someone in SF, and this is after a decade of slowly ramped up training with millions of miles in the city. AI vehicles are not generalized LLMs - they require specialized training to a city (think how google maps builds pictures of the road x 1000). They require enormous amounts of surveillance data, petabytes of precise info mapping people, sidewalks, streets to be effective. And even then is a matter of when they will make mistakes.

I support adding autonomous vehicles and autonomous robotics development to the moratorium. San Mateo County and cities like San Diego, Culver, and Minneapolis are recognizing the impact of AI automation on employment and insisting on safety regulations, human attendants, and impact fees to support workers.
Ultimately the model of high-tech redevelopment being imposed on us by the city and oligarchic corporations will cause more displacement of low income people. The cities with the most AI commercial leasing are also where residential rent and home prices are spiking the sharpest. Average rent in SF increased $1,000 last year due to the AI boom. See also Austin, Raleigh, Denver, Nashville, Seattle, massive increases correlated with AI development, as reported by Bezinga, "Tech Companies Are Pricing Locals Out As A New Report Shows How They Cause Housing Prices To Soar."
We have an opportunity to take a stand against the technofascist agenda of these billionaires who want to replace workers with automated factories and humanoid robots- Prometheus AI/Bezos, Tesla/Musk, Waymo/Google.
Not only does their computing power have a massive carbon footprint, they are extracting metals from the global south and perpetuating conflict, imperialism and ecocide. They are in bed with the military and mass surveillance industrial complex.
At a time when the safety net is being shredded, we have to resist this model of development that increases economic and housing precarity.

I oppose the proposed citywide moratorium on data centers.

Oakland should regulate legitimate impacts including noise, water use, backup generators, emissions, and electrical demand. But those concerns don't justify stopping an entire category of investment while the City writes regulations.

The supporting report focuses heavily on impacts from large or hyperscale data centers, including facilities using millions of gallons of water per day, while the moratorium itself isn't limited by size, water use, power demand, or emissions.

415 20th shows why this distinction matters. The building previously housed Lawrence Berkeley Lab supercomputers, and the proposed compute space is roughly one floor of an existing four-story building. Its cooling system hasn't even been selected yet, so its actual water and noise impacts aren't known.

Oakland needs investment, a larger commercial tax base, and better-funded public services. We also have commercial and industrial land that has been vacant or underused for years.

Please regulate actual impacts and require projects to meet appropriate standards rather than imposing a citywide moratorium. Oakland can protect residents while welcoming investment and emerging industries. These goals are not mutually exclusive.