CP&DR News Briefs June 23, 2026: Imperial Co. Data Center; L.A. Transfer Tax; Sacramento Co. Development; and More

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Imperial County Enacts Moratorium on Data Centers

On a unanimous vote of the Board of Supervisors, Imperial County will impose a 45-day moratorium on pending and future data center projects, despite three months ago advancing plans for the largest data center in California. Huntington Beach developer Sebastian Rucci’s company Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing has spent over a year seeking approval for a nearly one-million-square-foot AI complex that would require roughly 750,000 gallons of water per day for cooling. Despite months of public assurances from Rucci and IVCM that the project would rely solely on recycled wastewater and not draw from the already strained Colorado River, the company recently sued the Imperial Irrigation District seeking access to 260 million gallons of river water annually, enough for 7,300 county residents use each year. The pause was enacted under an urgency ordinance and can be extended for nearly a year, while a newly formed 19-member advisory committee studies the issue and delivers zoning and policy recommendations by January 2027. (See related CP&DR coverage of 'Lithium Valley' and data centers.)

Los Angeles May Exempt Multifamily from Controversial Transfer Tax

The Los Angeles City Council moved to request the City Attorney to draft a proposal exempting new apartment buildings in Los Angeles from Measure ULA, or mansion tax. Measure ULA, approved by voters in 2022, imposes a 4% tax on most property sales above $5.3 million and a 5.5% tax on sales above $10.6 million, generating revenue for affordable housing and homelessness prevention programs. Under the proposed amendment, multifamily housing developments would be exempt from the tax if sold within 10 years of construction, a change supporters say would reduce costs for developers and correct a recent decline in apartment construction. The council also unanimously advanced a separate proposal to exempt homeowners affected by the Palisades Fire from paying the ULA tax for five years on property sales dating back to January 2025. (See related CP&DR coverage.)

Sacramento County Approves Major Greenfield Development 

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors approved the Upper West Side Specific Plan, facilitating construction of 9,350 homes with over 25,000 residents across roughly 2,000 acres of mostly farmland in the Natomas Basin north of downtown Sacramento. The project has been in development since 2018. The Sacramento City Council voted against the project last year and denied supplying city water infrastructure for the project, so the project may need to rely on the Natomas Mutual Water Company, whose water mostly serves agricultural purposes in the area. Another central point of conflict is a 2002 agreement between the city, Sacramento County and Sutter County that capped total development in the Natomas Basin at 17,500 acres, which city officials say the project violates without proper environmental analysis. Residents appeared to express their support for the project as a means of alleviating housing pressure, while others expressed concerns about potential traffic congestion or wildlife destruction.

California Could Suffer Significant Job Losses due to A.I. 

Artificial intelligence could displace approximately 9.3 million U.S. jobs over the next two to five years, with potential income losses ranging from $200 billion to $1.5 trillion annually depending on the pace of adoption, according to The American AI Jobs Risk Index introduced by Tufts University. California is expected to experience the largest absolute impacts, alongside Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois, with these five states accounting for roughly 40% of AI-related job losses nationwide. The study identifies major technology and innovation hubs as particularly vulnerable, with the San Jose metro ranking first nationally in percentage job losses at 9.9% or 104,664 jobs at risk annually, followed by significant impacts in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area is projected to lose 381,388 jobs, the 2nd-largest displacement of any U.S. metro. Industries facing the greatest disruption include information services, finance and insurance, and professional and technical services, while occupations such as writers, computer programmers, and web designers are among the most vulnerable. The report estimates that occupations at high risk account for $757 billion in annual labor income, with software developers, management analysts, and market research analysts facing the largest aggregate income losses. In contrast, agricultural regions and states with smaller knowledge-sector workforces are projected to experience comparatively limited effects.

SCG Accepting Applications for $150 Million in TCC, CRC Grants

The Strategic Growth Council released Notices of Funding Availability (NOFA) are open for the Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) Round 6 and Community Resilience Centers (CRC) Round 2, totaling $153.4 million in awards between the two programs. TCC will provide approximately $98.4 million in funding across three grant types including planning grants up to $300,000 (two-year grant term), project development grants up to $5 million (two-year grant term), and implementation grants up to $27.5 million (six-year grant term). All TCC Applications are due: Sept. 30, 2026.  The CRC program funds the planning, construction, and retrofit of community centers and infrastructure and protocols for climate emergencies. Like the TCC, the CRC focuses on local, neighborhood-level involvement and organization. There will be approximately $55 million available in funding for two grant types including Planning Grants between $100,000 to $500,000 (two-year grant term) and Implementation Grants of $1 million to $10 million (six-year grant term). CRC planning grant applications are due Sept. 4, and implementation grant applications are due Sept. 25.

CP&DR Legal Coverage: Judge Stops Builder's Remedy Application in Santa Barbara

The battle over a proposed eight-story apartment building behind the historic Santa Barbara Mission is continuing – most recently with a judge’s ruling that the developer did not make a clear enough case for a builder’s remedy solution in correspondence with the City of Santa Barbara. The proposal has generated significant controversy both in Santa Barbara and statewide. First, a law passed last year – SB 158, intended to be a “cleanup bill” for AB 130, the budget trailer bill that exempted infill housing – continued provisions requiring environmental analysis that appeared to apply only to the Santa Barbara project. Then, the developers of the project sued in federal court claiming the law singled their project out. That case is still pending. Now, in a local lawsuit, a Santa Barbara judge has ruled that the developer did not make a convincing case that the city had denied the project in spite of a pending builder’s remedy application.

Quick Hits & Updates

The House Appropriations Committee approved $875 million in federal funding for public transportation at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. The money still must pass through the full congressional appropriations process. LA Metro had sought $2 billion total to execute an ambitious transit plan capable of handling an estimated 1 million additional daily trips during the 16-day Games. 

USC Price School Ph.D. student Yuquan Zhou won the Western Regional Science Association's Charles M. Tiebout Prize for research that proposes new methods for planners to measure access to essential services according to both location and operating hours. Zhou's "people-based" approach combines anonymized smartphone GPS data, time-varying travel networks, and service operating hours to create a more realistic picture of accessibility than traditional static maps based on Census tracts. Using Los Angeles County as a case study, her research found that conventional location-based measures significantly overestimate real-world access, particularly to services like food and healthcare.

Palo Alto's City Council rejected an urgency ordinance that would have immediately shielded the city from the full effects of Senate Bill 79, which will allow denser housing near transit stations effective July 1. Council members voted against the urgency ordinance out of fear it would expose the city to litigation and jeopardize its application for a state pro-housing designation. Instead, SB 79 will operate unchecked in Palo Alto for a two-week window before the city's own exemptions kick in on July 16.

Los Angeles County seeks to transform the long-vacant General Hospital building and its surrounding 30.8 acres in Boyle Heights into a mixed-use "healthy village" including affordable and market-rate housing, retail, food halls, clinics and gardens. The 19-story hospital closed in 2008, and the new project is estimated to take roughly 15 years to complete. Current estimates hover around $1 billion to $2 billion, but only $120 million has been secured so far for seismic retrofits and grading work. 

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and Supervisor Bilal Mahmood abandoned a proposal to cut transfer taxes on high-end real estate deals, backing down amid pushback over the city's $634 million two-year budget deficit. They introduced "Foreclosure Tax" in its place, a November ballot measure that would close a loophole dating to 1984 by applying a transfer tax to foreclosed commercial and residential properties. The 3% to 6% tax, which exempts single-family homes and small buildings, is projected to generate roughly $67 million annually in its first three years.

California and Santa Clara County are suing the Trump administration over a proposed ICE facility on farmland near Gilroy. The lawsuit argues that federal officials bypassed required state and local review, and would strain the limited waste disposal and drinking water infrastructure and threaten the endangered and threatened species that call the farmland home. Though the agency claims the structure would serve only as offices, officials believe the property would also be used for short-term detention of up to 150 people.

A ballot initiative that would have allowed 3,000 permanently affordable housing units on roughly one-quarter acre of the site of the Santa Monica Airport will not appear on the November 2026 ballot after organizers failed to secure the necessary number of signatures. Supporters have until August 12 to collect enough signatures for consideration on the 2028 ballot. The airport is scheduled to close that year, and discussions around development will continue as the deadline approaches.  

The California Transportation Commission rejected Los Angeles' request for a six-year extension on three state-funded mobility projects in Boyle Heights, Skid Row and Wilmington, putting over $100 million in grants at risk of lapsing at the end of June. The CTC declined to place the extension request on its June agenda, with a spokesperson saying the timeline LA sought exceeded what the grant program allows. The city cited staffing and funding shortfalls as potential reasons why it could not meet state-mandated deadlines for the sidewalk, bike lane and traffic-calming projects.

The Department of the Interior will pay energy company Invenergy $765 million to scrap our wind leases off the coasts of New York, California and Maine and pivot to develop natural gas power plants in four Midwestern states and geothermal projects in the Western United States. The deal is part of a larger Trump administration effort to stop development of U.S. offshore wind projects and increase domestic fossil fuel production, scrapping policies that support clean energy development.

Onni Group has filed an application with the City of Los Angeles to construct twin 67-story residential towers at the site of the Wilshire Courtyard complex near the recently completed D Line Miracle Mile extension. The project includes 2,586 units. They would be among the city’s five tallest buildings and the tallest outside of downtown Los Angeles.

San Diego Gas & Electric is proposing constructing a transmission line that would run from southeastern Imperial County to the Orange-San Diego county border, cutting through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The 140-mile Golden Pacific Powerlink is projected to cost $2.3 billion. Opponents warn the project would threaten endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep, 1,500 plant and animal species, dark-sky designations, and cultural sites tied to the Kumeyaay people.

The Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria has acquired 450 acres of ancestral land in the Big Chico Creek watershed in Butte County, funded through the California Natural Resources Agency's Tribal Nature-Based Solutions Program. The properties hold cultural significance for the Mechoopda as part of Ótakim Séwi and support salmon recovery, habitat connectivity between Bidwell Park and surrounding open space, and broader Sacramento River watershed restoration.