Data centre growth drives locals to fight for more say

When local activist Frank Arcoleo found out over the summer that a data centre was coming to his neighbourhood in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he said he was furious. There’d been no votes or public hearings. The first phase of the data centre project under development there only required administrative approval from a few city officials, based on the building permit application and state laws. “So these data centres are going in, and guess what? The public gets nothing to say about it because the city’s already approved it,” Arcoleo said. Now, Arcoleo is backing a zoning ordinance under consideration by the Lancaster City Council that aims to ensure residents have a say in the future. The ordinance would require data centre projects to undergo a special exception hearing from the city’s zoning hearing board. It would also require data centres to adhere to the city’s noise ordinance and for developers to submit a report detailing the project’s planned electricity and water use for the city to review.

Similar efforts are underway across the country, as municipalities move quickly to enact ordinances about where and how data centres are built. A few communities have turned to ballot measures or lawsuits. But at the same time, some state lawmakers are rushing to pass legislation that would accelerate the development of data centre infrastructure. More data centres are being built nationwide to meet the demand for digital services, including power-hungry artificial intelligence systems. Data centres, which house thousands of servers, are able to store and transmit the data required for internet services to work.

The facilities support a digital society and can provide increased tax revenue. Data centre advocates argue they also can bring new jobs and other benefits for states and local communities. But residents and local leaders in several localities across the country — including cities in Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, Tennessee, Virginia and other states — are concerned about how the facilities could drive up utility bills and harm the environment. Lancaster’s residents, including Arcoleo, are worried about the amount of energy required to power data centres — which could drive up electricity rates for the entire city, he said.

“Data centres alone will cause dirty electricity sources — coal-fired plants, diesel-fired plants, natural gas-fired plants — that were due to come offline to stay online because we need every kilowatt of power that exists,” said Arcoleo, a member of the progressive advocacy group Lancaster Stands Up. “That affects me too because it ruins my environment.” But Pennsylvania’s governor has been working to bring more data centres to the state. In June, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that Amazon was planning to invest at least $20 billion to build data centre campuses across Pennsylvania — the largest private sector investment in state history. He’s also pushing proposals to encourage more energy production in the state, which would supply data centres. But critics say parts of his plan would sideline local officials.

Data centres require a great deal of electricity to run, which some state officials worry will drive up electricity demand — and utility bills. Many data centres also require significant amounts of water to cool their servers. Large data centres can consume up to 5 million gallons of water per day — equivalent to the water use of a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people, according to a report from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, a nonprofit that provides educational resources to policymakers and the public. Local leaders and advocates across the country are weighing the potential outcomes in their community. In August, Starwood Digital Ventures submitted plans to New Castle County, Delaware, for a data centre project that could consume as much power as 875,000 to almost 1 million homes — nearly twice the 449,000 housing units that exist in the state, according to Spotlight Delaware.

The proposed data centre sparked strong opposition from residents at a July town hall, including state House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown, a Democrat, who organised the event. New Castle County Councilman David Carter was already working on an ordinance that would put up guardrails for data centre development in the area. Under the proposed ordinance, data centres could not be built within 1,000 feet of any residential zoning district. Developers would also be required to coordinate with state regulators to ensure enough water is available to cool the facility’s servers. The ordinance also outlines a decommissioning process for data centres that are no longer in use.

“Most of these concerns are things you can manage and plan for, but this is moving so quickly that I think across the country, most jurisdictions are playing catch-up for their codes to best manage these data centres,” Carter told Stateline. Currently, Virginia leads the country in data centre development. In the absence of state laws, Virginia’s localities began to make their own data centre rules.

Earlier this year, local leaders in Loudoun County, Virginia, which has one of the highest concentrations of data centres in the world, amended the county’s zoning ordinance to require data centre proposals to go through a public hearing process and get approval from the Board of Supervisors. Loudoun County officials are looking forward to new data centre bills coming out of next year’s legislative session, said Michael Turner, vice chair of the Board of Supervisors. But he added that decisions regarding data centre development should ultimately be left to localities.

“The decision for how local communities can use their land has to be left to the local communities,” Turner said. “But there’s no question: There’s rising tension between local community government, and state and federal government, as this high demand for both data and energy is continually rising.” Meanwhile, Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bill in May that would have required data centre developers and energy utilities to disclose information to local governments on noise and environmental impacts of a proposed project. In DeKalb County, Georgia, in October, county leaders voted to extend a local moratorium on new data centre applications until Dec. 16 while local leaders assess the impact of the incoming facilities, according to Decaturish. At the same time, county leadership is considering a zoning amendment that would regulate where data centres can be built, how they are designed and other standards.

Local advocates in other areas of the country are pursuing change through the ballot box or lawsuits. Residents in Augusta Charter Township, Michigan, collected enough signatures for a referendum that would let voters decide on rezoning for a proposed data centre. Township leaders believe the new facility will generate tax revenue for the community, but residents are concerned about noise and light pollution and higher electric rates, according to Inside Climate News.

Madyson Fitzgerald, Tribune News Service