The Ventura County Fairgrounds won’t be turned into a water thirsty data center any time soon.
The Ventura County Fairgrounds Board of Directors voted 5-3 to provide a 30-day notice to Global Stack USA that they do not want to continue with a memorandum of understanding to discuss building a data processing facility, a parking structure and a vertiport.
While the proposal didn’t directly discuss the construction of a data center, community members expressed concern that the development was opening the door to a future data center on the fairgrounds.
Part of the proposal included adopting a century long land lease with Global Stack. That lease would have been for 5-acres of waterfront property on the fairgrounds.
“I would not want to shoulder such a burden for so many future board of directors,” Board member Dan Long said.
The meeting featured over two hours of public comment, with members of the community holding up signs and expressing their opposition to any sort of data center on the Ventura County Fairgrounds.
Global Stack USA is an Orange County based company. The company aims to present similar proposals for up to 70 fairgrounds around the state.
“This project is not right for the fairgrounds,” Board member Miriam Mack said. Mack recommended that the Ventura County Fairgrounds CEO provide a 30-day termination notice to Global Stack. Her statement drew applause from the crowd.
The project would include a vertiport, a parking structure and a self-contained data processing unit. A vertiport is a takeoff and landing facility for drones and air taxis. There are only around 10 vertiports in the world.
“We keep telling you we’re not a data center, but if you chose to believe so, I’m not here to defend myself in that way,” CEO of Global Stack Dan Kang said.
“If the county doesn’t choose to adopt it, or the fairgrounds doesn’t choose to adopt it, it’s really no skin off my nose,” Kang said.
Kang later clarified that Global Stack is not against data centers and then claimed that the crowd likely used ChatGPT to research the proposal. The comment was met with loud jeers from the audience.
“We would lose a lot of community support at a time when we need it most,” Board member Long said. He also expressed concern over the longevity of the proposed developments, saying that the project could be outdated and no longer useful in ten years.
The president of the board, Guillermo Rodriguez Ceja Jr., opposed the notice of termination. Vice president Gloria Martinez and board member Leah Lacayo also opposed the termination.
Lacayo said she saw “no reason” not to continue with the non-binding memorandum of understanding, citing that they have a responsibility to explore revenue generation proposals.
