Fairgrounds Board Meeting – Global Stack Data Center Recap

The Ventura County Fairgrounds Board of Directors voted 5–3 on September 15, 2026, to prepare a notice telling Global Stack that any further movement on the current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the company and the Fairgrounds will cease, the Ventura Breeze reported.

The decision, coming after a packed meeting featuring 47 public speakers and a presentation from Global Stack executives, marks a dramatic turn in a controversy that has simmered since the non-binding, 12-month MOU was quietly executed — a fact that drew repeated criticism from board members and residents alike who asked, in the words of one director, "Why was it a secret?"

A Pitch Short on Details

Global Stack CEO Dan Kang and President Nick Kovacevich opened the meeting with a short video and PowerPoint presentation laying out what they described as the project's "core initiatives": "emergency resilience" and "new technology to create year-round revenue" for the Fairgrounds.

How those goals would be accomplished, however, remained murky. According to the Ventura Breeze's recap, the presentation was "devoid of technical or financial detail."

The emergency resilience component centers on "advanced air mobility" — a "vertiport" for electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that would, in the company's telling, "provide an uninterrupted aerial route for medical transport, responders, and urgent supplies when roads are blocked or congested." Skeptics noted that the Fairgrounds and the adjacent state park already offer ample room for staging such operations.

Kang pushed back on the "data center" label throughout. "We're not a data center," he said, offering instead the phrase "containers of compute" — a term that, as the meeting made clear, was never defined or meaningfully distinguished from a data center. Kovacevich described the project as "a parking structure with a 'compute container' in the middle of it."

Pressed on specifics, Kovacevich declined to say whether Global Stack had reached agreements with any other fairgrounds in California, and confirmed the company had not yet approached the California Coastal Commission — a significant hurdle for any development on coastal-adjacent land. Kang conceded the company has not previously executed this type of project. He closed with: "There is no data center being proposed. I'm not here to argue with you guys. If you don't want it, you don't want it."

An Outpouring of Opposition

Public comment ran decisively against the proposal. Of the 47 speakers — each allotted two minutes — only one spoke in favor, with three others describing themselves as undecided. All four, the Ventura Breeze reported, were members of LiUNA Local 585, the construction union local advocating for local skilled labor on such projects.

Opponents' criticisms ranged widely: the project was called a "scam, land-grab, bait-and-switch," "unnecessary," and "a manufactured need." Many speakers raised concerns about environmental and health effects, and others questioned how the proposal would contribute to public safety at all.

One comment carried particular historical weight. A descendant of E.P. Foster — whose 1909 deed transferred the Fairgrounds land to the County, making it public — addressed the board. "We are now all stewards of what E.P. Foster gifted us," Mildred Schofield said.

Susan Mulligan, a former chair of the Ventura City Water Commission, distilled the prevailing sentiment: "We don't need a private company to provide what we already have."

Board Deliberations and the Vote

During deliberations, directors echoed the public's concerns. Several zeroed in on the MOU's opacity: "We haven't received any information about Global Stack's business model," one said. Others flagged potential conflicts of interest within the company and questioned why the proposal included a parking structure the Fairgrounds doesn't need.

The proposed lease term drew some of the sharpest criticism. "Why does Global Stack want a 100-year lease when the proposed use may become obsolete in 10 years?" one director asked. Another was blunter: "It's ludicrous that anyone should approve a 100-year lease for anything."

On the vertiport concept, one board member said, "The last thing we need is a helicopter pad" so near the beach. On emergency preparedness specifically, another director noted the Fairgrounds already handles emergencies well: "We are very good at handling emergencies on our own grounds. We have a system of communications, and I don't believe this concept adds to that."

Three directors argued for continuing conversations with Global Stack to obtain more specifics. But the majority sided with the member who said, "Listening to all of this is like trying to understand a nightmare. We just don't know enough! Going forward with the [Memorandum of Understanding] is not something we should support." Another summed up: "We need to listen to the community. I'm appalled by the secrecy and vagueness of this proposition from Day 1."

What Comes Next for the Fairgrounds

The board's action directs staff to prepare a notice formally ceasing further work under the MOU — effectively ending, for now, a proposal that would have put industrial-scale computing infrastructure on one of Ventura's most cherished public spaces. The 62-acre seaside Fairgrounds, home to the annual Ventura County Fair and a long calendar of equestrian and community events, has faced financial sustainability questions for years, which formed the backdrop for Global Stack's pitch of "year-round revenue."

Whether the company, which according to the presentation has never completed a comparable project, will return with a revised proposal remains unknown. The lopsided public turnout and decisive 5–3 vote, however, signal that any future attempt would need to clear a far higher bar for transparency, technical detail, and community support than this one did.

Residents interested in the board's future agenda can follow Fairgrounds governance through the Ventura Breeze and district meeting notices.