You don't often get email from [email protected]. Learn why this is important From: Afshan Hamid
To: Nimisha Agrawal
Cc: Lesley Xavier
Subject: Public Comment: Related Data Center Opposition Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2025 1:41:57 PM
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AFSHAN HAMID
Director | Community Development Department
1500 Warburton Avenue | Santa Clara, CA 95050
Direct: 408-615-5670 | [email protected]
From: [email protected]
<[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2025 4:23 PM
To: Mayor and Council <[email protected]> Subject: Related Data Center Opposition
Dear Mayor and City Council,
I am writing to express my opposition to allowing Related to replace some of the planned mixed-use space with a data center.
This project has been touted as the new city center. A city center should be a location that is desirable to visit, and therefore consists of shops, restaurants, and places of employment. A data center does not provide any of the desired characteristics of a city center as it would take away available space and fill it with servers. No one has ever said they want to go downtown to check out the nice data centers they have there. If the project is truly to be a city center, then it should be populated with what attracts people: shops, restaurants, and entertainment.
Please oppose allowing Related to build a data center in the Related Santa Clara space.
Thanks,
Brendan Croom
North Santa Clara resident
1 Nimisha Agrawal
From: Afshan Hamid
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2025 1:46 PM
To: Nimisha Agrawal
Cc: Lesley Xavier; Elizabeth Elliott
Subject: Public Comments: Proposed data center
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AFSHAN HAMID
Director | Community Development Department
1500 Warburton Avenue | Santa Clara, CA 95050
Direct: 408-615-5670 | [email protected]
-----Original Message-----
From: Mayor and Council <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, May 12, 2025 3:36 PM
To: Mayor and Council <[email protected]> Subject: FW: Proposed data center
Dear Mayor and Council,
We received the following email which we are forwarding for your reference.
Thank You,
Melissa Lee | ExecuƟve Assistant
Mayor & Council Offices | City of Santa Clara
(408) 615-2252
| hƩps://gcc02.safelinks.protecƟon.outlook.com/?url=hƩp%3A%2F%2Fwww.santaclaraca.gov%2F&data=05%7C02%7C NAgrawal%40SantaClaraCA.gov%7Ce7d62e5915bf46b394c508dd925f2cbb%7C28ea354810694e81aa0b6e4b3271a5cb% 7C0%7C0%7C638827659645428872%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAw MCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=yHpimkGQ6yYIB6qhzjOorTteyx0qo VBNet46gA6afIU%3D&reserved=0
-----Original Message-----
From: Irene Brumbaugh <imuff@yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2025 1:24 PM
To: Mayor and Council <[email protected]> Subject: Proposed data center
[You don't oŌen get email from imuff@yahoo.com. Learn why this is important at hƩps://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdenƟficaƟon ]
2 As a nearby resident I am opposed to data centers in the “Related” development area. The original plan for retail, residenƟal and recreaƟonal areas is much preferred.
Thank you
Irene Brumbaugh
Sent from my iPhone
From: PlanningCommission
To: Mary Grizzle; Jovan Grogan; Mayor and Council
Cc: PlanningCommission; Afshan Hamid; Lesley Xavier; Nimisha Agrawal Subject: RE: Data Centers
Date: Wednesday, May 14, 2025 10:13:06 AM
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Good Morning Mary,
This is to confirm your email has been received in the Planning Division and will be provided to Planning Commissioners for their information.
Thank you for taking the time to provide your input.
Regards,
ELIZABETH ELLIOTT | Staff Aide II
Community Development Department | Planning Division
1500 Warburton Avenue | Santa Clara, CA 95050
O : 408.615.2450 Direct : 408.615.2474
From: Mary Grizzle <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2025 10:00 AM
To: Jovan Grogan <[email protected]>; Mayor and Council <[email protected]>
Cc: PlanningCommission <[email protected]> Subject: Data Centers
Honorable Mayor and Councilmembers,
I’m here today to express strong opposition to the continued approval and expansion of data centers in Santa Clara.
Our city has become a magnet for these massive, windowless buildings—many of which are built on prime land that could be used for housing, public services, or a long- overdue, vibrant downtown. These data centers consume acres of land, provide very few jobs, and return little in the way of civic or cultural benefit.
They don’t bring life to our neighborhoods. They bring noise, diesel emissions from backup generators, enormous water and energy consumption, and they offer no walkability, no retail, and no “there there” for the people who call Santa Clara home.
The continued overreliance on data centers is a short-term economic strategy with long- term consequences. Each one we approve is a lost opportunity to build housing, local businesses, parks, or public facilities like a new City Hall or courthouse that would serve real people, not servers.
As a lifelong advocate for our community, I urge you to consider this: Do we want Santa Clara to be a hub of community life—or a hub of warehouses for tech giants? I ask this Council to pause further approvals of data centers and begin a serious conversation about long-term land use priorities that benefit residents, not just corporations.
Respectfully,
Mary Grizzle
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From: Nimisha Agrawal
To: Nimisha Agrawal
Subject: RE: Public Comment FW: Related Santa Clara / City Place Date: Wednesday, May 28, 2025 9:30:43 AM
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From: PlanningCommission
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2025 3:06 PM
To: 'une vagabonde' <[email protected]>; Mayor and Council <[email protected]>; PlanningCommission
<[email protected]>; Public Comment
<[email protected]>; Afshan Hamid <[email protected]>; Lesley Xavier <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Related Santa Clara / City Place
Good Afternoon Thanh,
Your email has been received in the Planning Division and by way of my reply I am including the appropriate staff for their review.
Thank you for taking the time to provide your comments.
ELIZABETH ELLIOTT | Staff Aide II
Community Development Department | Planning Division
1500 Warburton Avenue | Santa Clara, CA 95050
O : 408.615.2450 Direct : 408.615.2474
From: une vagabonde <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2025 9:25 AM
To: Mayor and Council <[email protected]>; PlanningCommission <[email protected]>; Public Comment
<[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Related Santa Clara / City Place
Thank you council members for your time to fill in my knowledge gaps and provide insights from your perspective.
I've had the chance to speak up at a recent City Council meeting and met with several council members. I've learned quite a bit over the last 12 days. Writing this petition was to stand against the planning of large intrusive data centers popping up in Santa Clara and truly design and build around people. What I read in Silicon Valley Voice, "The new proposal would replace much of the office and retail space with light industrial space that would host data centers, " and then reading of Alviso's Journey from entertainment district to data center hub, here
, here and here: and large data centers behind Bracher Park and Scott/Monroe was the catalyst for this petition. With that, our council member shared that our data centers come in various sizes and the city won't be able to provide power to every data center that wants to come in, so what would go into the Related Santa Clara project is a 2-story data center (page 55 & 57) and not the 4 story, 486,000 square feet data centers next to our parks and behind our homes. This zoning code and land use change would attract businesses to come in and data centers help with the technology advancements we see in our communities today. Our communities, though, will see two more approved large data centers in the next few years, 2305 Bowers
and 1231 Comstock. If it helps,
the 2305 Bowers Ave building has some design aesthetics that look less sterile than other established data centers. It'd still be nice if those large canvas walls turned into works of art
.
Another major takeaway from this process was our council members' welcome and encouragement to speak up and to continue to be civically engaged. I loved serving on our Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee in the past and appreciated all the learning that came out of this process.
With this, I've closed my petition
.
Sincerely,
Thanh
On Mon, May 12, 2025 at 6:42 PM une vagabonde <[email protected] > wrote:
Thank you for the receipt. Could you tack on a better draft of the last message? Thank you for all you do!
Updated:
Dear Santa Clara City Council Members and Fellow Residents, As a resident of Santa Clara, continuously learning, found the project site notices , I am
again writing to express my strong opposition to the continued development of data centers within our city. While I understand the technological advancements that drive the need for such facilities, I believe that their proliferation in Santa Clara comes at a significant cost to the well-being, character, and future of our community. Please don't support a General Plan Amendment (to permit light industrial uses on Parcels), please don't support a Zoning Ordinance Amendment to MC-CP Zoning (to permit light industrial uses on Parcels 1 & 2) and please don't support the MCP Amendment (new Scheme C Variant Supplemental Chapter).
I urge you to carefully consider the following critical points as you evaluate future proposals for data center development:
· Data centers create sterile environments, devoid of life and public interaction. Designing spaces that actively exclude community engagement does not serve the best interests of Santa Clara. Our city needs vibrant spaces that foster community connections, support healthy aging, and encourage active lifestyles for all residents. Data centers offer no such benefit; they are essentially closed boxes that contribute nothing to the social fabric of our neighborhoods. · Data centers are disproportionately sited in Communities of Concern.
Historically, these facilities in Santa Clara have been located in areas designated for Light Industrial use, which tragically often overlap with areas identified in our own Bicycle Master Plan (Figure 6)
as "Communities of Concern." Furthermore, as
highlighted by my map or a more comprehensive listing here (https://www.datacentermap.com/usa/california/santa-clara/), these areas are often predominantly Hispanic. This pattern raises serious environmental justice concerns, suggesting a disproportionate distribution of burdens onto specific segments of our population. This inequitable distribution is particularly concerning when considering the City's own standards for parkland. The Parks & Recreation Department has established "research based best practices to create a Public Park Amenity & Design Standard for planning of new and expanded play spaces, with the goal of providing
2.53 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents." We must ask: Is this an equitable standard for neighborhoods across Santa Clara, especially those already burdened by industrial uses like data centers? By prioritizing data center development in these areas, are we further depriving residents of essential amenities like parks, which contribute significantly to quality of life and community well-being? · Data centers undermine our commitment to smart growth and housing. Our General Plan clearly prioritizes the development of more housing along Tasman Drive (Section 5.2.3, Priority Development Areas), accompanied by the amenities and services necessary to support a pedestrian-friendly environment with robust transit options. Data centers directly contradict this vision, occupying valuable land that could otherwise be used for much-needed housing and community-serving businesses.
· Data centers erode the unique character of our neighborhoods. The General Plan explicitly aims to "Preserve the unique character and identity of neighborhoods through community-initiated neighborhood planning and design elements incorporated in new development" (Section 5.3.1-P1). The monolithic and isolated nature of data centers offers no opportunity for community input or the incorporation of design elements that reflect the distinct identities of our neighborhoods. · Locating industrial uses with potential hazards near sensitive receptors is unacceptable. The General Plan (page 90) itself acknowledges that light industrial uses "may be noxious or include hazardous materials and may negatively impact sensitive receptors, like children and the elderly." Planning such facilities next to parks, where our children gather and play, is a direct contradiction of our community's responsibility to protect its most vulnerable members.
Beyond these local impacts, I believe we must also consider the broader environmental and economic consequences:
· Data centers place a significant burden on our electricity ratepayers. The immense energy demands of these facilities can lead to increased costs for all electricity consumers in our region. (Source
)
· The environmental and health costs of data centers are alarming. Recent research from the California Institute of Technology and UC Riverside indicates that by 2030, data centers in California could contribute to 1,300 premature deaths and $20 billion in health care costs, with greenhouse gas emissions rivaling those of all cars in the state. Furthermore, a Morgan Stanley report last fall projected that the global data center industry could produce 40% of annual U.S. emissions within five years. These are staggering figures that cannot be ignored. (Source and Source)
Santa Clara has the opportunity to prioritize development that truly benefits all its residents – development that fosters community, provides housing, respects our neighborhoods, and safeguards our environment and health. I urge our City Council to stand with the community and reject further data center development in Santa Clara. Let us focus on building a city where people can thrive, not just servers.
Sincerely,
Thanh Do, a Concerned Resident of Santa Clara
On Mon, May 12, 2025 at 3:31 PM Mayor and Council
<[email protected]
> wrote:
Hello,
Our office confirms receipt of your email which has been forwarded to the full City Council for their review.
Thank You,
Melissa Lee | Executive Assistant
Mayor & Council Offices | City of Santa Clara
(408) 615-2252 |
www.santaclaraca.gov
You don't often get email from [email protected]. Learn why this is important
From: une vagabonde <[email protected]
>
Sent: Friday, May 9, 2025 6:21 PM
To: Mayor and Council <[email protected]> Subject: Related Santa Clara / City Place
Dear Mayor Gillmor and Council Members,
My name is Thanh, and I reside in the neighborhood located between Bracher school and Wilcox. I am writing to express my concerns regarding the increasing presence and location of data centers in our city.
I have observed the significant data centers constructed in recent years behind Bracher Park and in the Scott/Monroe neighborhoods. Based on my own map analysis, I've noted that data centers in Santa Clara are largely concentrated in the central area. This region frequently overlaps with areas identified as "Communities of Concern," which experience disproportionate environmental burdens, and also falls within areas highlighted in our Bicycle Master Plan (Figure 6). According to 2010 data, this central area is also predominantly Hispanic.
My concern extends to the proposed data center conversion at the Related development site near Levi's Stadium. This location is in a predominantly Asian area (2010 data). The site was originally planned as a substantial 3 million square foot mixed-use project – significantly larger than Santana Row – designed to include retail, restaurants, hotels, and residential units. Converting this space into a data center would replace a potentially vibrant, publicly accessible area with a facility that inherently offers no public life or activity, both inside and out.
Given the increasing housing density in North Santa Clara and the critical lack of open space, I urge you to completely deny the proposed switch of the Related development to a data center. As a team dedicated to public service and the well-being of residents, I hope it is clear that designing spaces devoid of life and public interaction is not in the best interest of our community. We need spaces that allow our communities to thrive, age well, and remain healthy and active.
While it may be too late to alter the existing large buildings behind our homes and parks, perhaps these structures could be viewed as blank canvases. I suggest exploring opportunities for large-scale murals that could feature and elevate the work of local artists, adding some visual interest and community connection to these otherwise sterile facades.
For your reference, here are the links I consulted:
Santa Clara Bicycle Master Plan:
https://www.santaclaraca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/63506/63688 8847951800000
Draft Data Centers mapped in Santa Clara:
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?
webmap=461e84c6471f44f2b4c855a575ba762e
Thank you for your time and consideration of this important matter. Please also let me know if you feel my analysis is off.
Sincerely,
Thanh
Pilot Knob Dr, Santa Clara
Former BPAC member (2018-2020)
From: D Kasses
To: Nimisha Agrawal
Subject: Re: 6/11 Planning Commission Hearing - Related Santa Clara project Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2025 8:59:52 PM
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Hi,
I live a few feet from property of interest in 25-428 and a 5 minute walk from parcels 5, 4 and 2 in 25-402. I was able to remotely attend, see the plans and maps, and found it quite informative. I attended some of the Related Santa Clara info meetings and saw their artist renderings and listened to their promises, but some the questions and comments posed by the commission in this meeting cut through the fluff and highlighted some of the aspects glossed over in those other meetings held by Related. I just wanted to say thank you for the agenda and the link to the Zoom meeting.
Thanks,
David Kasses
On Mon, Jun 9, 2025 at 3:27 PM Nimisha Agrawal <[email protected] > wrote:
Good Afternoon,
You had requested to be on the interested parties list or had provided comments on the Related Santa Clara project. This is to let you know that the project is scheduled for the Planning Commission Hearing on June 11, 2025. The agenda for the Planning Commission Meeting has been published and is available here:
Agenda.
Thanks,
Nimisha Agrawal| Senior Planner
Community Development Department
1500 Warburton Avenue | Santa Clara, CA 95050
O:408.615.2450 | D: 408.615.2467