A massive data center planned for CC County is drawing growing backlash from residents who say the project is too large, too industrial, and too lightly understood by the community.
The AVAIO Perseus Data Center is planned for the former Delta View Golf Course property along West Leland Road, as part of the larger Pittsburg Technology Park. The site sits near the Contra Costa Canal, in an area that city leaders have long eyed for new economic development.
But for many locals, the idea of replacing a former golf course with a large AI-era data center has become a flashpoint.
The project has already received approvals from the city and state for its first phase, according to the City of Pittsburg. Still, public anger has surged in recent weeks, with residents raising concerns about power demand, water use, noise, backup generators, traffic, transparency, and whether the facility will meaningfully benefit the people who live nearby.
At a June 15 City Council meeting, residents turned out in large numbers to speak against the project. Local reports said the meeting drew more than 100 public comments, with many speakers criticizing the city over the approval process and the project’s potential long-term impacts.
The opposition has also grown online, where a Change.org petition calling for the data center to be stopped has reportedly drawn more than 14,000 signatures.
The scale is a big part of the concern. AVAIO describes the Pittsburg campus as a 76-acre site with 99 megawatts of secured power available for its first phase and potential long-term expansion. California Energy Commission documents describe the data hub as including a three-story data center building of about 347,740 square feet, along with backup generators, a substation, a PG&E switching station, transmission lines, access roads, parking, landscaping, stormwater features, and utility connections.
The backup power system is also getting attention. According to the CEC, the backup generating facility would include 37 diesel-fired generators used to provide emergency generation for the data hub if utility power is unavailable.
City officials say the project has been thoroughly reviewed and that the first phase has been designed with safeguards. Pittsburg says the data center would be more than 400 feet from the nearest homes, would use recycled water rather than potable water for Phase I cooling needs, and would include noise mitigation and emissions controls on backup generators.
The city also says the project’s electricity will be supplied by Pittsburg Power Company, not the same PG&E system that serves nearby residents, and that the data center tenant and developer will pay for the energy and infrastructure upgrades needed for the facility.
Water is another major point of debate. The city says Phase I is expected to use about 0.058 million gallons per day of recycled water from Delta Diablo, less than 1% of Delta Diablo’s current recycled water production. For comparison, the former Delta View Golf Course used about 0.27 million gallons per day of recycled water from the same pipeline, according to the city.
The controversy comes after the Center for Biological Diversity sued Pittsburg over the project, arguing that the city had not adequately addressed greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and wildlife impacts.
That case resulted in a settlement requiring additional environmental commitments, including recycled water use, 100% renewable energy for the data center, noise-reduction measures, biological monitoring, rooftop solar, and a $750,000 fund for climate-resiliency projects benefiting disadvantaged Pittsburg communities. The group agreed not to oppose the first phase under the settlement.
The timing also matters. Nearby Oakley recently moved to halt new data center proposals while city leaders study their impacts, and other California communities have begun pushing back against similar projects over power, water, noise, and land-use concerns.
In Pittsburg, the city now says the issue will return to a future City Council meeting. On June 16, officials announced that a workshop on data center development will be placed on an upcoming regular council agenda, with 10 days of public notice before the meeting.
That means the project is approved, but the political fight around it is clearly not over.
As one of the Bay Area’s first major East County data center fights, Pittsburg’s debate could become a test case for how local cities handle the next wave of AI infrastructure — and how much say residents will have when those projects land close to home.
Elon Musk’s plan to launch data centers into space is probably looking a lot less outlandish to those involved in the challenging debate over placing them here on earth.
