Amazon secretly circumvents community vote for massive AI data center using 45-year-old rules

Furious residents packing city-council meetings have become a familiar scene as proposals for data centers spark backlash in towns across America. But in Gilroy, Calif., known as the world’s garlic capital, there’s a twist: The $2 billion facility that residents are railing against is already being built.

“Many if not most residents first learned about this project after construction had already begun,” Coleen Crew, an elementary-school teacher, told the council at a recent meeting.

There were no public meetings or votes before a lone city staffer gave Amazon the green light last July to build a 438,500-square-foot data center on 56 acres of farmland 30 miles south of San Jose.

www.wsj.com/us-news/how-amazon-built-a-data-center-in-a-california-town-without-anyone-noticing-8610bb67?st=tdRRxh&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Some government leaders signed nondisclosure agreements early in the process

How can this be even remotely legal. You work for the public you cannot reasonably be held to an NDA that requires you to not tell your BOSS what you’re fucking doing!

It is illegal in California as of 2026-01-01