A guide to planning effective community information and listening sessions By Adam Waitkunas In today’s permitting climate, a data center town hall isn’t just an information session. It’s a pressure test. It’s often the first time residents meet the people behind a project—and the first time rumors, fears, and assumptions collide with facts in the same room. We’ve seen plenty of projects where a poorly planned meeting accelerated opposition, fueled headlines, and hardened positions overnight. […]
Post Tagged with: "Data Center Community Engagement"
Zoning In
Happy New Year! This week’s Zoning In captures a pattern that’s no longer emerging—it’s now the baseline. Across the country, data center development is colliding with a more organized and politically savvy opposition, as well as a growing chorus of scrutiny from state and federal policymakers. From proposals that quietly stall after securing incentives, to jurisdictions pushing projects forward despite intense public opposition, the dynamic is clear: communities are demanding transparency, elected officials are chasing […]
Data Center Community Engagement Comes of Age: Lessons from 2025, Imperatives for 2026
Annual review of rising community resistance—and how developers can de-risk site selection, build trust, and move projects forward Adam Waitkunas 2025 marked a turning point in the relationship between data center development and the communities asked to host it. What was once treated as a niche land‑use issue became a national flashpoint, driven by rising public awareness, political scrutiny, and organized opposition. Between March and June alone, more than $98 billion in projects across the […]
Zoning In
This week’s Zoning In tracks a surge of community protests, legal reversals, and ballot-box consequences. In Virginia, residents again rallied against new facilities and Dominion’s six-mile transmission line just as the Digital Gateway project won a temporary reprieve in court — and data centers became a defining issue in statewide elections. Across Springdale, PA and Ypsilanti, MI, environmental justice and transparency debates are reshaping how local leaders weigh promises of investment against noise, water, and […]
Adam Waitkunas Catches Up With Bisnow About What Virginia’s Election Means For The Data Center Industry
In a post-election analysis, Bisnow spotlighted how data centers became an unexpected flashpoint in Virginia’s 2025 statewide races—culminating in Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger’s win and renewed scrutiny on energy costs, siting, and who pays for grid upgrades. Adam Waitkunas told Bisnow the industry should view Virginia as a warning shot, noting that the record levels of data center–centric advertising during the campaign underscore just how politicized the sector has become. Check out the full article at […]
Reflections on One Year of Zoning In
12 Months That Made One Thing Clear: Data Center Community Engagement Is No Longer Optional –Adam Waitkunas What’s Changed—and What Developers Must Do Next Twelve months ago, we launched Zoning In to track the fast-evolving intersection of data centers, land use, and community relations. In that time, the landscape has only grown hotter: opposition is more organized, hearing rooms are packed, and narratives are shifting to include transparency, ownership structures, private equity, and even debates […]
Zoning IN
Amid headlines blaming AI for soaring power bills, a Berkeley Lab/Brattle analysis adds needed nuance: large loads can lower average rates where spare capacity exists, while aging infrastructure, wildfire mitigation, storms, and some mandate-driven procurement are major price drivers. Regulators and politicians are responding in real time: Virginia’s statewide races are now openly about who pays for grid growth, utilities are proposing special rate classes for hyperscale users, Michigan’s MPSC is weighing stricter IRP guardrails […]
Zoning In
As local moratoria spread from Georgia to Virginia to the Midwest, a new AP–NORC poll reveals something striking: Americans are now more worried about the environmental impact of AI and data centers than they are about aviation, meat production, or cryptocurrency. This week’s Zoning In tracks a growing disconnect between industry momentum and community confidence. Dozens of projects remain paused or withdrawn amid questions about water, power, and transparency — from Jones County’s 90-day moratorium […]
Zoning In
This week brought another round of sharp contrasts across the data center landscape — from community-led defeats and corporate withdrawals to zoning rewrites that push controversial projects forward. In Wisconsin, Microsoft abruptly scrapped its Caledonia proposal after outcry from nearly 2,000 residents, while just up the road, Vantage’s $8 billion Port Washington campus moved ahead despite protests outside City Hall. In Alabama, Bessemer officials changed local zoning laws to allow hyperscale data centers in light-industrial […]
Zoning In
This week’s Zoning In highlights how data center growth is reshaping policy and infrastructure across the U.S. In California, PG&E announced a $73 billion plan to upgrade transmission systems in response to rising data center electricity demand. In Maryland, a coalition of environmental and land use groups formed to coordinate responses and provide resources to communities evaluating new projects. Meanwhile, lawsuits, rezoning battles, and moratoria continue from Georgia to Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, while states […]





