Post Tagged with: "Data Center Community Relations"

Designing and Executing a Data Center Town Hall That Builds Trust Instead of Backlash

Designing and Executing a Data Center Town Hall That Builds Trust Instead of Backlash

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. […]

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Your Data Center Development Is Being Sued. Now What?

Your Data Center Development Is Being Sued. Now What?

A Guide for Managing PR During Litigation By Adam Waitkunas When a data center project becomes the subject of litigation, whether over zoning, environmental review, utilities, or land use, the instinct inside many organizations is to go quiet. “No comment.” “Let legal handle it.” “Freeze everything.” While caution is warranted, silence is rarely neutral. Litigation does not pause the public conversation and, more often than not, it intensifies it. Neighbors organize. Social media fills the […]

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Bridging the Data Center NDA Trust Gap: Why Developers Need a New Transparency and Community ROI Playbook

Bridging the Data Center NDA Trust Gap: Why Developers Need a New Transparency and Community ROI Playbook

-Adam Waitkunas As community opposition delays tens of billions of dollars in data center investment, developers are discovering that NDAs alone no longer protect projects—they often undermine trust. This piece explores how transparency, Community ROI, and executive visibility can be integrated into site selection and due diligence to reduce entitlement risk. For years, non-disclosure agreements have been treated as an unavoidable feature of data center development. NDAs protect competitive positioning, land negotiations, customer relationships, and […]

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Adam Waitkunas Catches Up With Bisnow on How Power, Politics, and AI Will Shape Data Center Development in 2026

Adam Waitkunas Catches Up With Bisnow on How Power, Politics, and AI Will Shape Data Center Development in 2026

Milldam’s Adam Waitkunas recently spoke with Bisnow as part of its annual outlook on the forces shaping data center development in 2026. The wide-ranging piece explores how artificial intelligence, power constraints, capital discipline, and politics are reshaping where and how data centers get built. In the article, Adam highlights a critical shift underway across the industry: community opposition to data centers is no longer an isolated, local entitlement risk. Instead, it is becoming more organized, […]

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Zoning In

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 […]

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Zoning In

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 […]

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Adam Waitkunas Catches Up With Bisnow About What Virginia’s Election Means For The Data Center Industry

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 […]

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Reflections on One Year of Zoning In

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 […]

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Zoning IN

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 […]

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Zoning In

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 […]

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