The Puente Hills Mall is a 1.1 million square foot complex that has served the San Gabriel Valley for decades. However, a new plan for it to be replaced with an AI data center may be the end to its long legacy.
The two primary developers behind the data center are RCV Equities and REDA who had purchased the mall in 2024 for $115 million dollars. The City of Industry then unanimously voted to rezone the mall from commercial, to industrial allowing it for data center use.
AI data centers like these are notoriously known to use thousands of gallons of water every single day, putting immense strain on local energy grids, and emitting noise and heat 24/7.
According to Calo News, one resident, Samuel Brown Vazquez, stated: “When you just think of it, if it’s generational, and it continues and continues, what are going to truly be the long lasting effects of developments like these that will just increase pollution in these areas?”
Many locals are concerned that their bills and quality of life are going to worsen and are incredibly frustrated that their city had not notified them of these plans.
According to Abc7, another resident said to the City of Industry councilmembers during a meeting: “I don’t want noise pollution. I don’t want higher water bills. I don’t want higher energy bills”
I and many locals have come to the consensus that the City of Industry should not be able to solely approve developments like these which impact surrounding neighborhoods without citizen approval.
However, the city continues to take advantage of its citizens. While the data center will affect the hundreds of thousands of people that live in the surrounding areas, these neighborhoods are mostly unincorporated. This means they aren’t officially part of any city as well as have no official voice in city council decisions.
Just because they have no official voice in this decision does not mean they’ve given up. The community outlash has been enormous and impossible to ignore. Hundreds of people have been going to the weekly city council meetings and sharing their voices. So many people have been going, that they had to lower their speaking time from three minutes to only one minute.
The city council members even had to turn off their public emails due to the overwhelming amount of feedback they’ve been receiving. There have been protests and petitions done by the newly founded “No Data Centers SVG Coalition.” According to Calo News, Steven Kung, Co-founder of the Coalition stated, “We’re going to stop them by any means necessary.”
Despite all this, the City of Industry has been making it difficult to take any actions against the development.
This situation also brings to light a large problem in the government process. How these developments are approved and passed silently, even though they are affecting hundreds of thousands of people.
I believe that the LA County government needs to intervene on behalf of the unincorporated communities and help shut down the AI data center development, or at least make it more transparent.
