Dumbstruck residents of pretty suburb say local officials used sneaky trick to green light huge data center on site of beloved golf course

UK Daily Mail ^ | 08/02/2026 | ALYSSA GUZMAN

[DFG]

A quaint palm-tree-lined coastal California town is in revolt over plans to build a massive 'hyperscale' data center on their doorstep.

Residents of Pittsburg, California, a sleepy boating town that shares the same name as Pennsylvania's second city, are furious about the move to build a 76-acre data center campus called Perseus on what was once the beloved local golf course.

AVAIO Digital's 99-megawatt facility is 'strategically' positioned near the East Bay, which is located 35 miles outside of San Francisco.

In a rowdy city council meeting on Monday, Pittsburg residents demanded answers and insisted that the project has no home in their town.

'The transparency and knowledge from city council has been horrifying,' resident, James Camoza, 40, who lives four miles from the proposed site, told the Daily Mail. 'They either do not know or do not care how this hurts communities.'

'The city council, in my opinion, purposefully misrepresented the project as a technical park, quoting significant economic growth, which is not the case with a data center,' he said.

'Although there will be construction jobs, these are short-term, and the long-term opportunities amount to roughly 20 roles.'

For Camoza, and many others, this is not enough to justify the feared disruption to their daily lives.

Data facilities can sometimes produce noise pollution, disturb residents' sleep, upset their pets and local wildlife, and in many cases use massive amounts of water resources to keep the machines cool.

There are an estimated 4,600 data centers operating within the US, with thousands more planned or in-development, according to Pew Research.

Centers often pop up in smaller towns with lots of land to build on and a large water source nearby, and increasingly without the consent of residents, which time and time again oppose the operations.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: avaio; california; datacenter; datacenters; pittsburg

[DFG]

"It will sit on the site of a golf course that was shut down in 2018"

[BenLurkin]

Pennsylvania’s “second” city?

Careful now. You’re talking about the Paris of Appalachia.

[butlerweave]

Investigate the local officials because you know there were KICKBACKS

[DFG]

This is Pittsburg, CA which is in Contra Costa County on the east side of the SF Bay Area (on Suisun Bay).

[Fresh Wind]

The city in Pa is “Pittsburgh”, not “Pittsburg”.

The Daily Fail does it again.

[cgbg]

I was watching an “American Greed” show on Mayor Nagin of New Orleans.

Everybody was paying him off to get city contracts—but fortunately he got to enjoy six years in prison, then another couple of years of house arrest and then a couple more years of supervised probation. He ended up totally broke.

Details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Nagin

Unfortunately cases of successful prosecutions of these crooks is rare.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

I can understand why these people would be frustrated, but golf courses in urbanizing areas are more endangered than a Blake Lively-branded product. There was a golf course that I played as a kid outside of Philadephia. It was a town landmark and named after George Washington no less. But it was in the path of growth and was much more valuable as development land so guess what - the beloved golf course is now a hospital, 10 story multi-family residences and a science center. And with respect to a data center, the hysteria has to stop. Data centers can be a boon to a community if they are planned for properly. They will be a huge tax revenue generator. But you can’t have some corrupt local zoning official or town councilperson who takes a bribe from the developer to cut corners to develop it. That is what the focus should be on.

And to get a pet peeve out of the way, the town does not share a name with Pennsylvania’s city, which is spelled Pittsburgh.

[PAR35]

If the golf course hasn’t been maintained in eight years, it’s not a golf course, it’s vacant land.

More importantly, who owned the land?

[cgbg]

Data centers are in the early stages—which means many, perhaps a majority, will fail as the industry goes through the shake out phase.

Cities and town need to be tough negotiators—and make sure the community benefits even if the business fails.

Obviously public officials taking bribes or kickbacks have no interest in such arrangements.

[Miami Rebel]

Almost invariably data centers get tax breaks. In Texas, those breaks were over $3billion last year.

Wall Street, as usual, has the firepower to overwhelm local city and town councils with heaps of horsesh— about hundreds of jobs that oddly enough never appear.

[catnipman]

“Investigate the local officials because you know there were KICKBACKS”

definitely ... seems to be SOP with these local city councils when they SECRETLY approve these monstrosities, secretly because they KNOW their voters do not want them ...

[ansel12]

What a great asset that beautiful city land was, if only money wasn’t the only concern it seems like it could have been put to a more creative use that would be admired today and that future generations would come to marvel at the gift from past generations, like a gorgeous park.

Whatever the final choice it should have been handled as an irreplaceable gift deserving of great thought and creative input.
I can imagine some of the early arguments about things like Central Park in NYC or Hermann and Memorial Parks in Houston, setting land aside must be painful but it sure is appreciated forever.

[DFG]

This is Pittsburg, CA which is in Contra Costa County on the east side of the SF Bay Area (on Suisun Bay).

[Doctor Congo]

Can you use ocean water for cooling?

[Disambiguator]

Not in California, because some tiny fish might be affected.

[Dr. Sivana]

'Although there will be construction jobs, these are short-term, and the long-term opportunities amount to roughly 20 roles.'

That's not exactly true. Many companies will place Corporate HQ near a data center for easy access, and to have nice short runs from the systems on campus to the data center. So, technically, those jobs aren't tied to the data center, but if the data center weren't there, the company might locate elsewhere.

[DFG]

Per AI:

“Yes, data centers can use salt water for cooling, but it requires specialized, expensive engineering due to corrosion, salt buildup, and high electrical conductivity.”

Challenges of Salt WaterCorrosion:

“Salt water rapidly rusts and ruins standard metal pipes and machinery.”

“Clogging: As water evaporates, it leaves behind hard salt crystals that block cooling membranes.”

“Electrical risk: Salt water conducts electricity easily, creating massive short-circuit hazards if a leak occurs near servers.”

https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/cooling/turning-off-the-tap-the-case-for-seawater-cooling-in-data-centers

[Mouton]

The Sacramento river passes by that city. Deep water navigable. There are sturgeon in that river. The Glomar Explorer used to be birthed nearby when I lived there. Suisun Bay was also the home of the salvage WWII liberty ship fleet.

[ComputerGuy]

...upset their pets and local wildlife...

See Spot run.

[Cowgirl of Justice]

This guy posted a warning about these data centers. They promise things like 100 jobs at $200,000 for 10 yrs just to get in the door and he said they should be required to put up a bond for that amount so that when they shut down, the money can be used to repair the land when they shut down and leave a blight on the land.