11 Mar Oakley Approves Bridgehead Project Without A.I. Data Centers

Oakley City Council members on Tuesday approved the Bridgehead Industrial Project after the possibility of it hosting an A.I. data center was removed. (Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

A new project is coming to the city of Oakley, but it looks a little different than originally proposed.

City Council members on Tuesday approved the 164-acre Bridgehead Industrial Project, which is slated to include logistics buildings — but only after removing the possibility of artificial intelligence data centers from the project. Council member George Fuller was the lone vote against the project after dozens of public comments that lasted for hours.

The project, located by the Big Break Regional Shoreline at the site of the Cline Family Cellars vineyards, is expected to bring in up to a $1.4 million surplus annually to the city’s general fund after being completed in as few as six years. But some residents have for weeks pushed back on the issue of environmental problems associated with A.I. data centers.

Data centers were removed from the project after a request by Jason Bennett, a principal for JB2 Partners LLC, which is the developer and partner of applicant Oxfoot Oakley LLC.

“We have heard your concerns as a City Council, and we have certainly heard the concerns of the community, and — in line with the fact that it was never our principal strategy to develop data centers,” said Bennett, “I respectfully request to modify our application to remove data centers.”

Both Oxfoot Oakley and the vineyards are owned by Fred Cline.

The move drew applause from residents in the room. Council member Shannon Shaw later said that the change allowed her to support the project.

“I was not in any way ready to support this project with a data center in it. It wasn’t anything that my constituents were going to support,” said Shaw.

Stephany Salgado, who grew up in the city, said council members should consider a complete ban on data centers as residents said that the potential of housing any data center could mean high water and energy consumption.

“I get off the freeway, you see gas stations, storage places, property that’s untouched, the recycling center that’s empty and just boarded up,” said Salgado. “Is this what we really want to do to our city?”

Residents’ opposition to the project was contrasted by support from labor representatives and their workers. Citing the availability of nearby jobs that would cut their commutes down, union members said that the project would allow them to spend more time with their families and also benefit the industry.

Ramon Amaral, a field representative of the North Coast State’s Carpenters Union, said that over 300 carpenters live in Oakley.

“There are other people that would kill to work close to home,” said Amaral.

Like other East County cities, Oakley has some of the worst commutes in the state.

Project opponents, many also noting their long commutes, said that jobs and commute times shouldn’t be a reason to lend support.

“How can you justify approving a project that will have a long-lasting, permanent, negative effect on all of us just for temporary jobs?” said resident Jasper Willowbrook.

In explaining his opposition to the project, Fuller referred to concerns about air quality.

“[The other council members] are creating an environmental cesspool and forcing it onto the residents of Oakley,” said Fuller.

Planning commissioners gave the project, then with data centers, the initial approval it needed to go before the City Council back in January, but asked that additional requirements be added if a data center was later proposed.