A massive Amazon data center has quietly landed on the eastern edge of Gilroy, and many nearby residents say they only realized what was happening when bulldozers and trucks started rolling in this month. The Amazon Web Services campus is going up on a 56-acre site near Arroyo Circle and has sparked questions about water use, power demand and how the project was approved. Company and city representatives are set to host a public open house this week, and the City Council is expected to revisit its approval practices later in June.
Project details and timeline
The Gilroy Data Center is slated for two single-story buildings totaling about 438,500 square feet and, in Phase I, will require roughly a 49-megawatt connection from PG&E, according to the City of Gilroy. The city’s project page shows a building permit issued in March and lists the site as under construction. Site plans also reference an on-site substation and the potential for up to 50 megawatts of battery storage to support the campus.
Neighbors want answers
Some residents say they were blindsided when heavy equipment arrived and have pulled together a petition and community groups to bring their questions directly to the company. Organizers with Silicon Valley Resistance say they are concerned about whether the site will be used for AI workloads and what kind of strain that could put on local utilities, while others worry about cost-of-living and environmental impacts. Those concerns surfaced in coverage by NBC Bay Area, which reports that some neighbors only learned of the project when construction work began.
Amazon’s claims
Amazon says the facility has been designed to minimize potable water use, will transition to reclaimed water for cooling as recycled supplies come online and that the company will pay for the infrastructure upgrades needed to serve the site. The project’s FAQ estimates roughly 2 million gallons of water per building per year and says outside-air cooling will handle most days, with water used sparingly on the hottest 3% of days. Amazon also says it will fund a dedicated substation and pursue carbon-free energy for the site’s lifetime; those details are on Amazon.
How it was approved
The project’s entitlements were signed off by the city’s Community Development Director after an environmental review that produced a Final EIR, and an appeal was later withdrawn, local reporting shows. Neighbors point to the administrative approval route rather than a public council vote as a source of frustration and a key reason outreach felt limited. The approval timeline and the site’s proximity to commercial and medical offices were detailed in reporting by the Gilroy Dispatch.
Air, water and backup power
Technical filings with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District show the first phase would rely on dozens of emergency diesel engines for backup power. The Air District’s engineering evaluation details 25 large 2.5-MW critical generators plus smaller units and notes the site lies in an overburdened community. Amazon and city documents emphasize that day-to-day operations are expected to run on grid power and that reclaimed water will be used for cooling when it becomes available. Those engine and emissions details, now part of the public record, are feeding into the broader neighborhood debate.
What’s next
Amazon and the city are planning a drop-in open house on Wednesday, June 3 at Gilroy High School to walk through project documents and answer questions, according to the city’s calendar. The City Council is scheduled to discuss how these kinds of projects are approved at a June 15 meeting, as reported by local outlets, and residents say they intend to bring their petition and specific technical questions to both events. The city has posted the official project materials and open-house details on its project site and calendar for anyone who wants to review them in advance.
