Tulare County Fair Board Tables Global Stack Fairgrounds Data Center Lease After Hours of Public Opposition

The Tulare County Fair board tabled a vote July 21 on leasing 2-5 acres of fairgrounds to Global Stack LLC — a company incorporated in March 2026 pitching 100-year leases for 8-10 MW edge data centers at fairgrounds across California. Residents packed the meeting and public comment stretched for more than two hours against the proposal, with many speakers urging officials to slow the process and provide more information, citing water usage, noise, and lack of environmental review. A separate rally against Global Stack was held July 23.

Targeting fairground boards rather than county zoning bodies appears to be a novel siting strategy, though it is not clearly a regulatory-bypass route: Tulare city economic development director Mario Alberto Anaya told The Sun-Gazette “any project of this size would likely trigger California Environmental Quality Act review” — the opposite of avoiding CEQA — worth watching for whether Global Stack pitches the same fairground-lease structure at other California county fairs and how CEQA review actually plays out.

Corrected 2026-10-01: inverted the CEQA framing from “may bypass” to what the cited Sun-Gazette article reports — a Tulare city official quoted saying a project this size “would likely trigger” CEQA review. Corrected “three hours” of public comment to the Sun-Gazette’s “more than two hours.” Cut “paired with parking garages and helicopter pads” — neither cited source (KMPH, Sun-Gazette) mentions parking garages or helicopter pads.