Congress Moves to Block Data Center on Navy's 70-Acre Old Town Site
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The battle over San Diego's NAVWAR redevelopment site escalated sharply this week, drawing in both city hall and the region's congressional delegation in a coordinated display of opposition to a proposed 400-megawatt data center on the 70-acre Navy installation in Old Town.
On October 27th, the City Council unanimously adopted a 45-day moratorium — ordinance O-22152 — pausing new data-center development, establishment, intensification, or expansion across the city. The measure is temporary, not a permanent ban, but it signals the city's intent to establish actual land-use rules around the industry before development outpaces regulation. Mayor Todd Gloria has aligned with the council in opposing the data-center proposal for the NAVWAR site.
Then, on October 29th, four of San Diego's congressional representatives — Sara Jacobs, Mike Levin, Scott Peters, and Juan Vargas — announced their opposition and pledged to introduce legislation that would require local government consultation before any development could proceed on the site. That remains a legislative pledge, not an enacted restriction. Congressmember Jacobs has argued the NAVWAR site was always intended to return housing and public space to the community, and that a data center would fail that promise while potentially raising electricity rates and affecting air and water quality — concerns stated by opponents and not independently established by the underlying reporting.
At 400 megawatts, the proposed facility represents a significant draw on the regional electrical grid, and that power consumption sits at the heart of opponents' objections. Advocates for data-center development argue the infrastructure is necessary to support the broader economy, but critics counter that prime infill land adjacent to transit is simply the wrong location. The city's 45-day moratorium buys time to develop a framework that could distinguish between those contexts. The concrete indicators to watch: whether the congressional legislation is formally introduced, and whether the moratorium produces a draft land-use framework before it expires.