Pasadena Lacks Zoning Rules and Grid Capacity for Data Centers, Committee Learns

[Updated]   A single hyperscale data center could consume more than a third of Pasadena’s entire current electrical load, and the city has no zoning rules, no infrastructure, and no policy framework to handle one, Pasadena Water and Power staff told the Municipal Services Committee on Tuesday.

The briefing — requested months ago by Committee Chair Justin Jones and presented as an informational overview rather than a response to any specific proposal — laid bare a set of gaps that prompted all four committee members to call for immediate action. 

Earlier, at the March 2 City Council meeting, a spokesperson for a group of residents calling themselves the Concerned Citizens of Rose Court told the Council they had recently learned that Amazon had purchased a Pasadena building for use as a high-intensity AI data center. 

Amazon, however, responded to those concerns by going on the record to say the facility will be built out into a research and development laboratory, not a data center. 

Pasadena has no zoning category for data centers, no location capable of serving a 25-megawatt load, and — while an existing provision requires council approval for any customer over 10 megawatts — no broader policy governing how the utility handles large power requests before they reach that threshold, staff said. 

“Right now there is no data center land use in the city’s zoning code,” said Martin Potter, a principal planner with the Planning and Community Development Department. “So if one were to be submitted, we would have to look at it on an individual basis.” 

Kimberly Huynh, a principal electrical engineer for power system planning at Pasadena Water and Power, told the committee that a conventional data center consumes roughly one megawatt and runs around the clock. A hyperscale facility — the kind driven by artificial intelligence — typically exceeds 20 megawatts.

“One data center, say about 50 megawatts, can consume around 36% of the entire Pasadena system load,” Huynh said, “and the equivalence of that would be 41,000 houses or 115,000 electric vehicles.” 

A 10-megawatt facility alone may consume about 80,000 megawatt-hours annually, roughly equal to the energy used by 8,000 homes, Huynh said. Pasadena Water and Power’s import capacity from the regional grid is limited to about 280 megawatts, and the system’s peak demand already reaches 330 megawatts, she said. 

General Manager David Reyes confirmed that no location in the city could currently serve a 25-megawatt load. 

No formal applications for a data center have been submitted, and the most recent large new load the utility accommodated was 2.5 megawatts, for an electric vehicle charging station, staff said. 

“We’re not obligated,” said the assistant general manager for power delivery. “If we don’t have the capacity, we do not have the capacity. It’s that simple.” 

The discussion was sparked in part by reports in commercial real estate publications that a building on Bradley Street could be converted to an AI data center — reports that alarmed residents. Reyes told the committee that developers have occasionally approached the utility to ask about large loads at specific locations but have never filed formal applications. 

Councilmember Cole said he had received a message that day from a Mr. Gunter, a consultant providing Amazon guidance on design review and analysis for the quantum R&D lab, from Amazon who indicated he would attend the meeting.

Councilmember Cole said he had received a message that day from a Mr. Gunter, who is a consultant providing Amazon guidance on design review and analysis for the quantum R&D lab, indicating he would attend the meeting. Gunter was present but declined to speak when Cole asked whether he would be comfortable sharing news that had been reported in the media.

“We do have a permissive zoning code, which means it needs to expressly be stated a use is allowed, otherwise it’s basically considered disallowed,” Reyes said. 

The options under the current code, Potter said, include interpreting a data center as similar to an office, warehouse, or research-and-development use; treating it as an ancillary use if there were a primary use on the site; or amending the code to establish data centers as a distinct land-use category with specified zones and approval requirements. 

Councilmember Jason Lyon said the city needed to act fast. 

“I do think we need to move rapidly on the zoning piece of this,” Lyon said. “I’m not comfortable saying it’s just another office use. It’s not.” 

Lyon also floated requiring data center operators to bring their own clean power. 

“It strikes me that this is one of the ways we could make this work and make it desirable is if they were bringing their own and more to our system, and that’s a win-win,” Lyon said. 

Councilmember Cole raised concerns about regional competition, warning that neighboring cities could host data centers that draw on shared water and electricity supplies while shifting costs to Pasadena. 

“My concern is the idea that nearby communities will gain the benefits and shove some of the impact onto us,” Cole said. “That’s a longstanding pattern in California.” 

Cole called for an internal policy that would immediately flag large load requests and route them to the committee or the full council rather than allowing them to be processed automatically by staff.

“If they’re coming in to either convert or to build a new thing that is of this scale, I think we need some internal policy that immediately flags that and either says no or maybe or it goes to this body,” Cole said. 

Lynne Chaimowitz, the city’s Assistant General Manager of Finance and Administration at Pasadena Water and Power, told the committee that the utility already has a provision requiring an individual rate study and council approval for any customer requesting more than 10 megawatts. Reyes said the question now is whether the 10-megawatt threshold is the right number or whether it should be adjusted. 

Councilmember Tyron Hampton cited health, noise, and environmental concerns and called for the council to work with the Los Angeles County supervisor on a regional approach. 

“The zoning, as Councilmember Lyon mentioned, we need to do that now prior to someone saying,’Oh, this is an office building and it’s really not an office building,’” Hampton said. 

Cole also asked staff to research what had occurred in nearby Monterey Park, where the city council adopted a moratorium on data centers. Staff said they had not yet examined that situation. Cole said the information would be helpful, noting that Monterey Park may place a related measure on its June ballot. 

Water consumption also drew attention. Huynh told the committee that data center water demand varies dramatically depending on the cooling system used, ranging from the equivalent of 120 homes to 5,400 homes for the same facility. Staff said the less water-intensive a system is, the more power it requires — a trade-off that complicates planning.

Huynh said the effects of data centers could reach Pasadena even if no facility is built within city limits. Transmission system upgrades triggered by data centers elsewhere in California are typically spread across all ratepayers in the state, she said, meaning Pasadena could face higher costs from data centers located in other jurisdictions. 

Staff said data center power demands could also force the utility to run local generation more frequently, potentially affecting Pasadena’s goal of achieving 100% carbon-free energy by 2030. 

Huynh noted that several states have begun addressing the issue. Virginia and Ohio have enacted legislation requiring large data center operators to pay minimum bills and enter long-term contracts to prevent cost shifts to residential ratepayers, she said. Texas is reevaluating its cost allocation methods for grid upgrades to prevent stranded assets, and New Jersey is evaluating whether its existing rules allow large loads to shift costs onto ratepayers, Huynh said. 

California passed SB 57, the Rate Payer and Technological Innovation Protection Act, in 2025, requiring the California Public Utilities Commission to evaluate the effect of data center loads on ratepayers by January 1, 2027, Huynh said. 

Three residents addressed the committee during public comment. One speaker who identified herself as Barbara said commercial real estate publications had listed Pasadena as an attractive data center location because of its municipal electric utility, strong existing fiber and telecommunication infrastructure, and proximity to Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Staff told the committee they plan to deepen their evaluation and return with additional analysis. Reyes said if the city ultimately determines that certain classes of data centers should not be permitted, that decision would shape how regulations are developed. 

“Because we’re a built out city without a lot of space, we do want to get ahead of the issue,” Reyes said. “We know that regulations are likely needed, but we just don’t see the opportunity because A, we don’t have the infrastructure to bring in, import that kind of power for these larger facilities, nor do we have the space.”