LAWRENCEBURG, Tenn. (WTVF) — Residents of Lawrenceburg are raising questions about a proposed data center — and about how city leaders have handled communication surrounding the project.
The concerns mirror frustrations playing out across the country, from Florida to Colorado to Nevada, as data centers continue to pop up in communities of all sizes. In Lawrenceburg — a city of 11,000 — neighbors say they were caught off guard by the proposal and are demanding more transparency from local officials.
"If it really is not gonna be a big deal, if it's really gonna help us, and not negatively impact us at all, why try to sneak it in at the 11th hour? Why all the secrecy?" Kolby Willis, a Lawrenceburg resident, said.
The project took a significant step forward several months ago when a rezoning ordinance was passed, changing a plot of land along Flatwoods Road from residential to light industrial to make way for the facility. The land was purchased from a private landowner.
Residents say the contrast between how this project and other recent developments were handled is striking. Projects like an Aldi grocery store and a Waffle House were heavily publicized, they say — but not the data center.
"I think that we've seen so many times with other things, like we got a Waffle House and it was all the talk and you could see the plans. It felt exciting and you could see how it was progressing. But then there was nothing at all about a data center being mentioned," Elle McCann, a Lawrenceburg resident, said.
City leaders did post a required notice about the first steps for the data center — specifically the rezoning of the parcel — which appeared in the Lawrence County Advocate in December. Mayor Blake Lay's office also provided a copy of that notice and a photo of a sign posted at the data center site. Initially, however, the phrase "data center" was never mentioned in those materials.
Mayor Lay's office later provided a written statement with more details about the proposed facility. According to that statement, it will be a 5-megawatt cloud storage data center spanning about 60,000 square feet.
I had a meeting scheduled with Mayor Lay on the same day I spoke with concerned neighbors, but was told he couldn't make it. The interview was rescheduled for the following week, giving him several days to prepare. On the morning of that rescheduled interview — set to take place via Zoom — the mayor cancelled again, saying he was being called away because of his full-time job.
Among the concerns residents shared was the data center's potential environmental impact, particularly its water usage. Many in the area rely on well water.
"As a farmer... most of our county is on rural wells," Alan Salhany, a local business owner, said.
According to Mayor Lay's office, the facility's closed loop system will use between 10,000 and 15,000 gallons of water per day. Lawrenceburg Utility Systems says it has the capacity to treat up to 9 million gallons each day, if necessary.
Cameron McCanless, Director of External Relations for Lawrenceburg Utility Systems, spoke about the utility's involvement in the project as it currently stands.
"It's one of those things where we've got a job to do to serve our customers. And new development that comes in.. it's kind of one of those things where we have available capacity," McCanless said.
Residents are also concerned about what the data center could mean for power and water costs for other Lawrenceburg Utility Systems customers.
"People are concerned.... and this isn't gonna change that," McCanless said.
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