Win California · CEQA · Nov. 2026

A California court halts the Imperial County data center over skipped environmental review

A judge ruled the county approved a nearly 1-million-square-foot data center in pieces to avoid studying its impacts. Development is stopped until a full review is done.

By Tam Hunt

In September 2026, the Imperial County Superior Court set aside the county’s approval of a massive data center planned next to the Victoria Ranch neighborhood near the City of Imperial. The ruling halts development and requires the county to study the project’s environmental impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) before it can move forward.

The project. Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing proposed a data center of nearly one million square feet, with a large battery system, natural gas generators and a new substation. Local coverage reported that it could need more power than the entire county used last year, and the developer estimated about 750,000 gallons of water a day.

How it was approved. The county treated the data center as allowed by right. It issued a grading permit with a CEQA exemption in November 2025, then approved a lot merger in April 2026. The City of Imperial sued in December 2025, and the Sierra Club’s San Diego and Imperial Counties chapter sued in May 2026. Their core argument was “segmentation”: approving a huge project one small piece at a time so that no single step triggers environmental review.

The road to a win was not smooth. In February 2026 the court found the city’s amended complaint insufficient as pleaded and suggested no rezoning or conditional use permit was required. The challengers regrouped around the lot merger. In September, Judge L. Brooks Anderholt found that the county had “prejudicially abused its discretion” by approving the merger without first completing CEQA review. The county did not oppose the tentative ruling. The developer has said it may seek a new trial or appeal, and is looking at other sites.

Why it matters. Data centers are often approved through ministerial permits that never ask about grid strain, water, air pollution from backup generators, or who pays for new substations and transmission. This ruling shows that CEQA still reaches projects approved in pieces. For ratepayers, the environmental review is also where the project’s power demand, and the grid upgrades it will need, get put on the record.

Sources: KPBS, Sept. 9, 2026 · KPBS, Sept. 1, 2026 · KPBS, May 27, 2026 · Calexico Chronicle, Feb. 11, 2026