The Whittier City Council passed a 45-day temporary moratorium on data centers, detention facilities, massage parlors and car washes at its Oct. 27 meeting Tuesday.
After a public hearing, the lawmakers unanimously adopted Urgency Ordinance Number 3174, establishing a temporary moratorium on data centers, Urgency Ordinance 3179, banning detention facilities, and Urgency Ordinance 3181, establishing a temporary moratorium on massage parlors, freezing the approval, permitting or establishment of any of the businesses.
Councilmember Cathy Warner was the lone dissenting vote on Urgency Ordinance 3180 related to a moratorium on car washes, cautioning the group about balancing supporting a business with any problems that business could cause.
While she’s not an enthusiastic fan of car washes, “if something is going to be utilized and it’s profitable, then we’re going to see it,” Warner said. “I do want to acknowledge the fact that yes, we have seen a lot of car washes. Do I personally like the look of them? No…but I hope that it will be successful and it will be something that people will use.”
All four urgency ordinances immediately go into effect for 45 days.
Ben Pongetti, director of community development, said the ban on data centers, detention facilities, massage parlors and car washes, came out of expressed community concerns on the impacts of each.
The council can extend the moratorium on Dec. 8, when they can extend it another 10 months and 15 days. The lawmakers can then extend the moratorium again after that period, up to two years, Pongetti said.
“This is a temporary measure for up to two years that allows you to study it and then make a decision on whether or not you want to make those code changes permanent in the Whittier Municipal code,” he added.
Councilmember Vicky Santana said the ordinances will address concerns of best use of Whittier land, specifically the electricity and water demands and backup generation infrastructure, capacity and sound pollution associated with data centers, large buildings housing computers that store and process digital information, including artificial intelligence.
Opposition to data centers is widespread across the country and in the San Gabriel Valley, with Monterey Park becoming the first U.S. city to permanently ban the structures, passing the voter-approved Measure NDC on June 2, 2026. Alhambra voters will decide on a charter amendment to permanently ban date centers on Nov. 3. The Irwindale City Council approved a ban on data centers on Sept. 9.
Baldwin Park, City of Commerce, Montebello, West Covina and South El Monte have also issued temporary moratoriums on data centers.
Santana also listed the proliferation of massage parlors in Whittier, and questions of their legitimacy, and the incompatibility of detention facilities in Whittier neighborhoods as reasons she proposed the four-item bans.
“I do think it sends a strong message to the community that no matter that these things aren’t even in the future, if the state or the federal government comes down with regulations that requires us to do data centers, we already have a moratorium in place so that we’re not discriminatory against future developments,” she said.
The latest prohibitions, when it comes back to the governing body, should contain language on the council’s intentions, said Councilmember Aida Macedo, including the environmental impacts of data centers, the abuse and human trafficking possibly happening in massage parlors, and the detention and abuse of immigrants.
“In my opinion, it’s to protect the integrity of our city and use of our city to what residents really want,” Macedo said.