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- The Nashville Zoo is fighting a proposed data center nearby.
- The conflict is an example of concern across the country.
- Zoning policy complicates the situation.
In Nashville, Tennessee, people are worried about clouded leopards.
Cats are a rare and endangered species found in countries like Nepal and Bangladesh. Although conservationists try to breed them in captivity to ensure their survival, it’s been tricky — tigers are sensitive to noise.
News broke in June that the proposed 69,220-square-foot facility would occupy land just behind the Nashville Zoo in Grassmere, which has an animal breeding program. Now, Nashvillians are joining communities across the country in fighting against incoming data centers.
More than 385,000 people have signed a Change.org petition, and the conflict has made national headlines. Even country star and Nashville star Brad Paisley posted a video, calling the project a “bad situation” and a “very bad situation.”
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The bare outline of the argument — community versus data center — sounds familiar. Towns in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and many others are grappling with what could happen to their communities when a data center moves in — and how little say they have in the matter.
But this particular show represents putting a furry face on some of the worst fears people have about data centers. From noise and environmental pollution to the regulatory chaos that ensues as local governments scramble to develop zoning policies, it’s not hard to see why a national audience is tuned in to the potential plight of a creature like the cloud-shrouded tiger and the community around it.
“We can all imagine that,” says Joe Szynkowski, founder of The UpWrite Group, and a PR expert who has worked with companies on crisis management. “That’s what makes us strong — this sad little animal next to a multi-billion dollar industry. I think that’s the easiest story to tell.”
The nearest data center
One of the biggest concerns people have about data centers is the environmental impact, including noise pollution. March data from the Pew Research Center found that 39% of Americans believe that data centers are “very bad” for the environment.
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The zoo’s concerns center on how the building will affect its animals and their habitats.
“Continuous noise from cooling systems and generators, and light pollution from bright security and active lighting can significantly affect the behavior of animals, disrupting their natural photoperiods and rhythms. The stress on animals from these factors can be harmful to our conservation efforts, especially our clouded tiger breeding program,” said the zoo in a statement posted on its website, the dangerous cat.
A clouded tiger at the Nashville Zoo.
chad lee / 500px/Getty Images
The Nashville Zoo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Atlanta-based company behind the proposed data center, DC Blox, said it had heard concerns expressed about the project.
“For the past decade, DC BLOX has safely operated data centers near neighborhoods, schools, daycare centers, and businesses throughout the Southeast without complaints or health issues,” the company said in a statement to ZDNET.
It also said it will use closed or waterless cooling designs to save water, pay for energy use and new energy infrastructure that may be needed, test and control noise to the required levels in the area, protect lighting fixtures, and comply with state and local environmental regulations.
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“The proposed DC BLOX data center is not an AI factory but is designed to be the communications center needed to handle the expansion of the region’s Internet, a critical infrastructure that depends on the proximity of the people it serves,” the company said.
But Nashvillians like Wes Hadley, who recently started a business focused on restoring urban forests, aren’t convinced the potential environmental impacts are fully understood. Hadley also wrote a song about this situation, called Electric Zoo, and posted it on social media.
“It’s just a new example of the kind of development that has a huge environmental impact that I think we don’t have the rules right now to pay developers fairly,” he said.
Some of these expenses are leaked to the local media.
Reporting from the weekly The Nashville Scene found that stormwater runoff from the data center will flow into stormwater infrastructure on the zoo’s grounds. The zoo’s system is already “paralyzed,” Scene said, and more flows could exacerbate the problem.
In an article detailing some of the possible effects on the zoo’s animals, the Tennessean pointed out that a tributary of Mill Creek — home to the endangered crawfish — runs through the zoo. A zoologist told this newspaper that polluted runoff could harm the tributary and its crawfish.
“When they build these projects, the real cost of development is not just the cost of building the building,” Hadley said.
Controlling forest
Like many municipalities across the country, Nashville is struggling to fine-tune its zoning policies, at a time when issues and emotions are running high.
“If it wasn’t near the zoo, this wouldn’t be … dangerous,” said District 26 Metro Council Member Courtney Johnston. “Everybody’s in a frenzy, so the challenge — we’re behind the eight ball with this.”
Johnston explained that data centers are not defined as a land use in Nashville’s zoning code. So when the plans came to the local manager, they were designated as “regular office,” meaning no environmental review was required.
“That’s the panic,” she said.
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There are already about 12 data centers in Nashville proper, according to the Data Center map. The DC Blox project isn’t the only controversy in town — North Nashville residents have also started a petition opposing the construction of a data center on the historic campus of HBCU Fisk University.
Johnston introduced both a text amendment to the code to define data centers and a 90-day moratorium to stop development until that important policy is finalized. And he’s challenging the local manager’s term for “regular office.”
So far, there are 77 moratoriums in effect across the country, according to the US Data Center Moratorium Tracker. Meanwhile, 38 states have offered tax incentives to data centers, according to a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures, highlighting a potential mismatch of priorities and incentives.
“At the government level, at the resource level, they all want it [data centers]but the local communities are the ones who have to deal with the conflict,” said Ashish Nadkarni, IDC’s vice president and general manager of business infrastructure.
Nadkarni thinks that a possible solution would be for the regions to isolate the areas especially the data centers, away from the population and places like zoos, in the country where there would be few harms of this development.
Perhaps such a plan would save local lawmakers from trouble.
“[We are] “We’re really trying to do everything we can to play football and be as cautious and responsible as possible,” Johnston said.
‘Cartoon villain movie behavior’
As AI has quickly become a dinner table conversation, Szynkowski noted, for many, AI is a villain of sorts, threatening to upend the way they work, learn, live, and now, the way they experience a public space like a zoo.
A Gallup poll from May found that 70% of Americans oppose AI data centers in their area.
“Data centers and AI companies, in fact, have a PR problem,” Szynkowski said.
For members of the public, the differences between the two sides of the debate seem stark.
“Seeing this proposed project away from the zoo to me is almost like watching an animated movie,” Hadley said.
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Beyond PR, Nadkarni stressed that big forces are driving companies building data centers.
“You can make an argument that we need data centers because this is our national interest to separate from AI,” said Nadkarni, “But on the other hand, local people also want the quality of life, and their quality of life not to be compromised.”
That problem arises when members of the public feel they are not getting the whole story.
In addition to the original one-story building, the plans include a three-story, 40-megawatt data center building, a substation, and a guard house, according to Nashville Scene, a revelation that further angered opponents.
Despite all that, some people like Hadley and Johnston aren’t against data centers across the board — they just want a thorough understanding of what’s going on, time to prepare, and accountability along the way.
“The industry owes it to the community, the local residents, to educate them about what they do and what they don’t do,” said Nadkarni.
Zoo life
Uncertainty may be yet another sign of a data center versus civil war. Johnston said it could be weeks before Nashville — and everyone — knows the fate of the zoo, including those reluctant breeding tigers.
Rachel Mack, a college student in Nashville, holds a zoo membership and visits two or three times a week, looking for a break from the bustling “it” city.
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He’s one of the 385,000-plus signatories to the petition, and he’s watching the numbers climb.
“I think the easiest line for people to draw is when it has the most to do with human and animal welfare, and it’s hard to see when we’re just talking about these numbers,” she said. “Not everyone in the world has been to the Nashville Zoo, but I think everyone has experienced a place that feels safe and brings wonder and learning to them, and those places are always worth protecting.”
