Meeting: Proposed Downtown Concord AI Data Center

Concord city council members are quietly developing a partnership with Lattice Industries to develop an AI data center in the downtown area.

Concord Housing and Economic Development Committee
April 29 5:30PM.
Garden Conference Room
1950 Parkside Drive, Wing A

Residents across the greater Bay Area region are pushing back against the tech oligarchs who want to plant AI data centers in their communities. This April, the city of Oakley put a (temporary) ban in place to stop development of data centers, after one was proposed by the waterfront. Residents have rallied together in a massive backlash against a proposed data center in Gilroy.

Lattice Industries has found local Democratic Party allies in Concord city council, Carlyn Obringer and Pablo Benevente. They are drafting a proposal to develop a data center, and AI hub in the middle of Concord. There has been no public outreach on the idea, no public polling, no town halls. The tech giants pushing for this proposal are Dell Technologies and Invidia.

Tonight is the first time anyone from the public has the opportunity to make comments against the data center. The Concord city staff who analyzed this proposal have officially recommended "not proceeding" with this partnership. Yet, Councilpersons Carlyn Obringer and Pablo Benevente are moving to proceed with the discussions. Neither of whom are up for reelection in this 2026 election cycle.

Lattice Industries has no track record. There is notable mention of Lattice Industries in trade press, or national news. They claim to operate a Data As A Commodity digital marketplace, yet there is no trace of said marketplace. Their non-profit subsidiary, the Data Institute, seems to only exist on paper (so to speak).

Despite having no documented history, Lattice has gained support of Dell and Invidia. Which raises the question as to why Lattice is asking the city of Concord to take on a bond, and help fund the renovations or 2000 Clayton Avenue. It is proposed that Concord take financial risk in this venture that Dell or Invidia could pay for. Economic studies on the AI industry have shown that the industry adds practically nothing to economic growth to a state or national economy. The only people who truly make money are the executives.

Though the matter of the financials misses the point that data centers are bad for the environment, bad for communities, and ultimately destroy more jobs than they create. For these reasons, there is growing resistance to data centers. Not only in the Bay Area, but across the country including deep Red counties. Opposition to data centers is a non-partisan issue as such projects strain power grids, and pollute air, water and soil.

There are as well concerns about data marketplaces. Our private data is being gathered at an unprecedented rate. It is being sold and fed into AI algorithms for marketing and surveillance with no oversight.

This proposal has been quietly drafted in secret. Tonight is the first time that members of the public have a chance to make public comment on this issue.