San Leandrans weigh in on Data Centers

What could data centers mean for San Leandro? At our Community Café at the Bancroft Resilience Center, neighbors raised questions about electricity use, air pollution, land and who pays for infrastructure upgrades. People wanted understandable local information and a clearer picture of how residents can have a say in decisions.

We’ve gathered the meeting notes and a summary of the concerns we heard.

Scale is hard to understand and people want it translatedParticipants wanted concrete comparisons that make megawatts of electricity, acres, water use, generators and infrastructure demands understandable in everyday terms. We created a small example that may give people more context

Air quality, energy use and safety are central concernsPeople were concerned about the enormous amount of electricity data centers use, along with generator and turbine emissions, battery fire risk, noise and heat. There were also concerns about facilities generating their own power on-site and what that could mean for nearby neighborhoods 

Land and infrastructure are community resourcesThere was concern about scarce industrial land, who owns it, whether parcels are being assembled currently, and whether data centers could crowd out other uses. Participants also raised the question of who pays for electrical and other infrastructure upgrades.

People want to understand the approval processThere were repeated questions about zoning, CEQA, conditional use permits, administrative approvals and whether a project could be approved under a broad industrial or office classification without meaningful public review.  All of this red tape makes the whole approval process very opaque.

People want San Leandro specific factsThe discussion kept returning to local parcels, Districts 3 and 6, Prologis holdings, PG&E infrastructure, neighborhoods, schools and what is actually happening here, not just national trends.

There is a call for public accountabilityParticipants wanted mayoral, City Council and our school board to be clear about their positions on data centers- and AI in general. AI-related infrastructure and school use of AI so residents can understand where they stand.

Participation needs to be easy

People mentioned postcards, email, petitions, community events, schools, unions, PTAs, faith communities and talking with neighbors. The group knew that not everyone can attend long public meetings or become an expert in planning process or rules.