Milldam Monthly

Zoning In

Zoning In

in Milldam Minute, Milldam Monthly, Milldam News

This week’s Zoning In highlights just how quickly the regulatory landscape around data centers is changing. California enacted a sweeping seven-bill package covering environmental review, energy, water, utility costs and land use, with Mayer Brown providing an excellent analysis of what the new laws mean for the industry. Virginia also introduced a new Data Center Accountability Framework, while new moratoriums and restrictions advanced in communities across Iowa, Wisconsin, Colorado and Kentucky. Microsoft goes quiet after […]

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Zoning In

Zoning In

in Client News, Milldam Minute, Milldam Monthly, Milldam News

This week’s Zoning In shows just how quickly the data center debate is moving from community concern to concrete political and regulatory action. California enacted seven new data center laws, Texas expanded its permitting pause, Prince William County ended new by-right development, and communities from Chicago and Oakland to Colorado, Oregon and New Hampshire are considering or adopting moratoriums. Maryland, meanwhile, is building community engagement, transparency and community benefits directly into its statewide review framework. […]

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Zoning In

Zoning In

in Client News, Milldam Minute, Milldam Monthly, Milldam News

This week’s Zoning In shows just how quickly the rules around data center development are changing. From moratoriums and rejected projects to lawsuits, tougher NDA policies, and new requirements around community benefits, public opposition is increasingly driving public policy. Massachusetts may offer a glimpse of what comes next, with new rules requiring community benefit agreements and effectively giving host communities a greater say over whether projects move forward. Unless the industry takes the bull by […]

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Zoning In

Zoning In

in Client News, Milldam Minute, Milldam Monthly, Milldam News

This week’s Zoning In shows how quickly data center opposition is moving beyond local zoning fights and becoming a financial, political, and industry-wide risk. Banks and investors are beginning to factor in community resistance, project delays, and even uncertainty about long-term AI demand into financing decisions, while Berkshire Hathaway CEO Greg Abel publicly acknowledged the growing pushback. At the same time, President Trump’s criticism of data center opponents drew bipartisan rebukes in Kentucky, and voters […]

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Zoning In

Zoning In

in Client News, Milldam Monthly

From small-town Maine to Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nevada, communities across the country are hitting the brakes on data center development with moratoriums, tougher regulations and, in some cases, outright bans. Pennsylvania’s sweeping new requirements around transparency, community engagement, infrastructure costs and community benefits are particularly significant — turning many of the practices once considered industry “best practices” into formal expectations and mandates. Perhaps most notable, however, is how quickly the issue is moving beyond zoning […]

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Zoning In

Zoning In

in Milldam Minute, Milldam Monthly, Milldam News

Things continue to heat up for the data center industry, with this week’s headlines showing community opposition evolving into a much broader financial, political and regulatory challenge. Reuters reports that lenders are now factoring community support into financing decisions, while major projects face lawsuits in Missouri and Georgia, a gigawatt-scale development was withdrawn outside Atlanta, and Chicago and San Antonio are considering new moratoriums. The political pressure is also becoming harder to ignore. All three […]

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Milldam’s Adam Waitkunas Joins Loudoun County’s Buddy Rizer on Data Center Frontier Podcast to Discuss Data Center Community Engagement 

Milldam’s Adam Waitkunas Joins Loudoun County’s Buddy Rizer on Data Center Frontier Podcast to Discuss Data Center Community Engagement 

in Client News, Milldam Minute, Milldam Monthly, Milldam News

Milldam Public Relations’ President, Adam Waitkunas recently  joined Loudoun County Economic Development Executive Director Buddy Rizer and Data Center Frontier Editor Matt Vincent for a discussion on one of the most significant challenges facing the rapidly expanding data center industry: community trust. The Data Center Frontier podcast, “The Next Data Center Constraint: Trust,” examines how community acceptance and political durability are increasingly influencing where—and whether—new data center projects get built. As Waitkunas and Rizer discussed, […]

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Zoning In

Zoning In

in Milldam Minute, Milldam Monthly

If there was a single theme this week, it was that community engagement is becoming just as important as power, land and fiber—and this week’s headlines provided no shortage of examples of what not to do. From Wisconsin, where former New York City Mayor Eric Adams was booed while attempting to sell a local project, to Nevada, where a developer replaced a public town hall with a prerecorded video, to Pennsylvania, where public interest overwhelmed […]

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Zoning In

Zoning In

in Client News, Milldam Minute, Milldam Monthly

This week’s headlines reinforce a trend that is becoming impossible to ignore: the push for greater oversight of data center development is accelerating—and it’s spreading well beyond the markets where opposition first emerged. From The New York Times’ investigation into Meta’s confidential $50 billion Louisiana deal to Loudoun County considering a pause on new applications in the world’s largest data center market, the conversation is increasingly centered on transparency, public trust, and local control. Meanwhile, […]

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Zoning In

Zoning In

in Client News, Milldam Minute, Milldam Monthly

Zoning In This week’s headlines make one thing unmistakably clear: community opposition has evolved from isolated local disputes into a coordinated national movement reshaping how—and whether—data centers are built. From 142 organized protests across 42 states to new moratoriums, zoning regulations, utility investigations, and a growing bipartisan political movement, communities are no longer asking whether data centers should be regulated—they’re demanding a meaningful seat at the table. The industry’s challenge has never been clearer: technical […]

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