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Data Center Development: Zoning, Permitting and Litigation
Sebastian Rucci is the lead attorney and developer on a $10 billion AI data center project in California’s Imperial Valley. The project has taken him through industrial zoning, site plan review, ministerial approval, disputes over CEQA, and a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Imperial and several of its officials.
That experience is the core of his data center practice. He works with developers and landowners on:
- Site selection on industrial land and zoning analysis
- Site plan applications, review deadlines and “deemed approved” rules
- Ministerial approval, and disputes over whether CEQA applies
- Approvals with cities, counties and utilities
- Litigation when officials block a lawful project, including federal civil rights claims
The Imperial Valley data center case
In January 2026, Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing, LLC filed a verified civil rights lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California against the City of Imperial and several senior officials. The complaint alleges that the City did not act on the project’s site plans within the deadline in its own code, so the plans were deemed approved by law, and that officials retaliated after the project moved to industrial land in Imperial County.
Read the case summary, the Civil Rights Complaint (1-09-26) and the Combined Exhibits.
Articles on the case
- By-Right Does Not Mean Backdoor: What Ministerial Approval Requires
- IVDC Court Rulings and Appeals Timeline: What Happens Next
- The Truth About Zoning: Why the IVDC Is Playing by the Rules
- Approved by Right, Blocked by Red Tape: The IVDC Permitting Fight
- Judicial Validation: The Court Confirms the IVDC’s Legal Standing
- Court Order Confirms: The IVDC Is Lawful — And the City’s Lawsuit Is Costing You