THE CONTROVERSY / Imperial DataCenter

Special Edition No. 1

A companion to the four-face newspaper · September 2026

The edition front page

Read the paper. Follow the record.

Imperial County’s data-center debate spans public comments, court rulings, project plans, and competing ideas about where future development belongs. This page is the door for someone holding the printed edition. The current public PDF remains available; a revised print proof has not been approved.

Open the current four-face PDF ↗ · Browse the public-comment corpus ↗

Three ideas, free to take

Suggested resolutions, not County resolutions

Idea 1 · LandEast Mesa conveyanceConsider asking the federal government about transferring suitable East Mesa land to the County, then study whether it can host tech uses without drawing on agricultural water entitlements.Read the idea → Idea 2 · ProcessMake decisions visiblePut the project file, legal review, decision path, meetings, and responses before residents early enough to matter.Read the idea → Idea 3 · TestingWelcome AV testingThe published edition’s suggestion that Imperial County invite autonomous-vehicle testing on county roads, with the testing record visible to residents.Read the idea →

The comparison

How others bring the public in

Palo Alto’s council meeting procedure and Arizona’s legislative Request to Speak system are different models, not interchangeable County rules. The study identifies the specific visible steps and the limits of borrowing them.

Read the jurisdictions study →

Before the paper is printed

Sources and corrections

The existing public PDF contains a mistaken headline unit and a session-count mismatch. This companion does not silently fix the print artifact. Open the source and correction desk for the record, what has been checked, and what still needs a new proof.

Go to the source desk →