NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Data centers have become a major inflection point for communities across Tennessee, bringing economic opportunity while raising serious environmental and community concerns among residents who say the cost is too high.
Nearly everything digital — from phone apps to artificial intelligence — depends on data centers. But as facilities have proposed and built them across Middle Tennessee, a growing number of residents have pushed back, and local governments have struggled to find legal footing to stop them.
NewsChannel 5 has covered efforts to stop or slow down data center construction in Nashville at Fisk University and the Nashville Zoo, along with Robertson, Coffee, Lawrence and Warren Counties.
Attorney David Raybin said local governments don't have a lot of authority in these scenarios. "Unfortunately, local governments are ill-equipped to deal with this," Raybin said.
Several Middle Tennessee communities have passed temporary pauses or permanent bans on new data centers. But Raybin said companies building data centers have successfully sued and won over those moratoriums.
"Tennessee is very pro-business. We have a lot of statutes that say, you have the right to use the property as you want," Raybin said. "A moratorium is just an edict saying, you can't do this or you can't do that. Really, there's no authority for doing that except for a very narrow emergency situation. Normally you have to have a zoning ordinance or change."
Raybin asserts that it remains unclear whether zoning changes are enough to block data centers long-term. "The jury's still out on whether the data center or the communities will be successful in the long-term," Raybin said.
Raybin said the solution will ultimately have to come from the state legislature or Congress. Tennessee passed a new law this year involving data centers, but it only addresses who pays for the massive amount of electricity and infrastructure they require. "This new law says no — that the data center has to bear its own costs of this infrastructure," Raybin said.
Until state or federal lawmakers act, Raybin said court cases may be the only tool local communities have. "Until Congress steps in, we're not going to have any real solution to this," Raybin said.
When it comes to the data center near the Nashville Zoo, Raybin said the city has few legal options to block the project, though an environmental lawsuit remains a possibility.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Chris.Davis@NewsChannel5.com.
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