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Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

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Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#151

Post by wyre »

no-name-here wrote: post #134
arcanemachiner wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like having my garbage picked up at the curb, but I wouldn't want to live downwind from a landfill. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-should-improve-society-som...

I think that’s how DCs mark an exponential growth in NIMBYism and its acceptance - we’re already seeing city-wide, county-wide, even state-wide bans, even in states where much of the state is very low density. If this kind of NIMBYism becomes accepted, I expect to see similar broader bans against multi-family housing, mass-transit, etc.

Based on what? Slippery slope fallacy? There are real reasons why people don’t want their community to have a DC, which are wildly different than the entitled NIMBYism that isn’t against multi-family housing and mass transit.

Put a data center in Atherton and I’ll change my mind.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#152

Post by Johnny555 »

tptacek wrote: post #78
mixdup wrote: post #24

I don't know what DC Blox was going to put in this particular datacenter, but they are a "traditional" colocation datacenter company. Maybe this one would've been superdense GPUs with a jet engine as electrical generator causing all kinds of noise, but it's also just as likely this would've been a project that 5 years ago no one would've batted an eye over, and wouldn't cause any issues in the local neighborhood That…

The funny thing about data center concerns in Chicagoland, where I'm hearing it, is that data centers are better neighbors than almost any other commercial real estate. The data centers in Aurora are surrounded with prairie green space; everything else, including the nicest office buildings, are a sea of eyesore asphalt parking lots. I get there can be real concerns, locally-specific, about energy usage (again: they…

>...data centers are better neighbors than almost any other commercial real estate

The biggest reason I wouldn't want a data center next door as opposed to an office building is the noise and pollution from backup generators (that may run more than expected if the datacenter has load shedding agreements with the utility)

The sea of parking lots doesn't seem any worse than the huge featureless datacenter building.

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2026-04-2...

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#153

Post by eagleinparadise »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #107

If anyone is curious, from the photograph in the article, I have geolocated the existing business park property here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/kYyHuEWcAZkrypWa7 The whole area is (1) office parks (including large parking lots), (2) warehouses/light manuf'ing/"big box" stores, (3) enormous(!) rail yard (freight trains), (4) the Nashville Zoo. I don't have any skin in this fight, but I think it is a missed opportunity.…

I work in commercial real and even I'm going to go NIMBY mode on this lol. This property shares a large boundary to the zoo and I have a very hard time believing you won't cause an impact (noise pollution eg) to the animals next door.

Is there any evidence anywhere of a totally sound proof, unintrusive mega data center? I have not seen anything.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#154

Post by da_chicken »

tptacek wrote: post #149
da_chicken wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody invests a billion dollars in a facility without first lobbying to get an exemption from property taxes. Most states in the US have passed incentives that include sales and property tax exemptions. They're all drain.

This is the opposite of the truth. For instance: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2026-08-04/dekalb-and-aurora...

No, it's exactly the truth:

https://www.ncsl.org/fiscal/subsidizing-servers-how-states-a...

The legislatures are betting that the data centers stick around or bring in jobs. They won't. They think something that expensive must require a ton of jobs to maintain. It doesn't. They need low taxes, cheap land, cheap water, and cheap power.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#155

Post by malixp »

I wonder if we're heading toward a split where "AI data centers" and traditional cloud infrastructure are treated as completely different categories. Five years ago, a new data center mostly meant more capacity for the internet. Today, many communities seem to assume it means tens of thousands of GPUs, massive power demand, noise, and water usage. AI has clearly changed public perception, but I'm curious how much of the opposition is actually new versus concerns that already existed around land use, noise, and power. For people who work in infrastructure, has the approval process genuinely become harder because of AI, or has AI mainly amplified concerns that were already there?

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#156

Post by locknitpicker »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #140
ericcumbee wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Property Tax revenue, and they are not a drain on services like schools, roads, fire department, police department etc. I'm watching this debate in a town that i am from and where I live. Our choices are pretty much be swallowed up by growth from neighboring cities and become a bed room community or solar farms and data centers. The downside with becoming a bedroom community is you risk creating a negative tax base.…

Opposition to data centers is like 90% hatred of Silicon Valley and its obstinate elites. One they amplified by trying to build these things sneakily.

> Opposition to data centers is like 90% hatred of Silicon Valley and its obstinate elites. One they amplified by trying to build these things sneakily.

This is utter nonsense, and reeks of a desperate and deep denial. I mean, you might as well rationalize your denial by claiming they don't like you because they don't like you.

Have you tried actually listening to what critics have to say? Nimby doesn't just pop up out of nowhere at ever spot because someone failed to do PR.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#157

Post by veunes »

The real issue seems to be that local zoning and utility planning never caught up with the scale of modern data centers. If a project can consume huge amounts of power, generate constant noise, affect a neighboring zoo, those costs should be addressed before the land is sold and hundreds of millions are committed.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#158

Post by altcognito »

Larrikin wrote: post #62
senor_digimon wrote: post #46

My sincere theory is that this is finally the government/politics stepping in to take their cut from the AI revolution. The politicians now have a fee-based strategy where they can literally just stick a fee on any upcoming project(s). Pay up if you ever want your permits to go through and construction to get started.

You don't need a conspiracy theory. All these data centers were going up in rural/near rural areas that voted for this, but then the data centers made everyone else's electric bills go up. I was for them and now I'm against them until they pay for their own electricity.

> I was for them and now I'm against them until they pay for their own electricity.

Exactly my sentiment. I don't even understand how this is controversial. The only ones who don't seem to get it are everyone making the plans (including the folks in government)

They're just trying to reduce the risk and lead time to gain an advantage. I'm a huge AI supporter and there's no way to advocate for them. They've just blown all the good will out of the water.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#159

Post by ashleyn »

tptacek wrote: post #78
mixdup wrote: post #24

I don't know what DC Blox was going to put in this particular datacenter, but they are a "traditional" colocation datacenter company. Maybe this one would've been superdense GPUs with a jet engine as electrical generator causing all kinds of noise, but it's also just as likely this would've been a project that 5 years ago no one would've batted an eye over, and wouldn't cause any issues in the local neighborhood That…

The funny thing about data center concerns in Chicagoland, where I'm hearing it, is that data centers are better neighbors than almost any other commercial real estate. The data centers in Aurora are surrounded with prairie green space; everything else, including the nicest office buildings, are a sea of eyesore asphalt parking lots. I get there can be real concerns, locally-specific, about energy usage (again: they…

The reputation of datacenters precludes them due to some high-profile abuses of locals, as well as cities overcommitting brittle and unprepared infrastructure to them.

Consumer energy prices in 13+ states hiked because the grid was unable to meet the sudden demand. SpaceX's datacenter in Memphis used gas turbines to rapidly deploy Colossus before the grid could be upgraded, which resulted in an increase in local air emissions that was technically illegal. There are two Meta datacenters that oneshotted their local water supplies during construction and tests, resulting in sediment and bacteria going through consumers' taps. NV Energy cut off an entire town of residential properties because datacenters were more profitable, in a higher-stakes parallel to the ongoing RAM woes in consumer electronics.

There's been more than enough well-justified association between "datacenter" and "abuses local resources" that I think nobody should really be surprised at the backlash toward them. The backlash is so furious that it's forming a rare example of a bipartisan, populist consensus on any given political issue.

Re: Nashville uses eminent domain to block data center near zoo

#160

Post by jrflowers »

tptacek wrote: post #137
shit_game wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a very significant talking point through most of covid, actually. Granted, there is an orders-of-magnitude disparity between office buildings and data centers regarding both their resource consumption and their local financial return through employment. Its no surprise that the attitude towards data centers is much more negative.

Not really, no? I'm not saying office buildings are "just as bad" as data centers; I'm saying they're substantially worse. It is much more unpleasant to have an office building next to your home than it is to have one of the CyrusOne Aurora data centers. The data center is --- seriously go look at them --- basically like having a park next door.

Wait are you saying office buildings bring less to the community because so, so, so many more people work in them than in data centers

Do you think a community is your house

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