The Toolkit / Data Centers

Fighting a Data Center in Your Town?

A negotiation framework for municipalities, councils, and citizen coalitions. Because data centers are not simple real estate transactions, no matter how the developer pitches them.

Compiled by Sarah Preu, candidate for Kansas's 3rd Congressional District

Why this exists

Data centers are not simple real estate transactions, no matter how developers pitch them. As compute demand explodes, municipalities are getting steamrolled by what construction firms internally call "lightning projects": builds rushed through approval before communities can organize a response.

Demand is real and it is not going away. But that is not an argument for accepting whatever the developer offers. It is the opposite: when an industry is desperate for sites, that is exactly when local governments have leverage. Use it.

This toolkit is a starting framework for the discretionary review process every municipality should run before approving a data center. It assumes nothing about the developer's good faith and demands accountability across five areas: grid stability, water and environmental runoff, noise, lifecycle and transparency, and community reinvestment. Use it as a baseline. Add to it. Send it to your council. Bring it to the public hearing.

Grid stability and energy accountability

The asks

Residential ratepayers should not subsidize the grid upgrades a hyperscaler needs. Make the developer pay.

  • Infrastructure cost recovery. Developers must accept 100% of the costs for any new power generation or transmission upgrades required to serve the facility. These expenses do not shift to residential ratepayers.
  • Grid support and load management. Require the data center to curtail and manage loads during peak demand periods. The facility must demonstrate cycling of on-site backup generation or battery storage that supports grid stability so residents do not experience demand issues.
  • Efficiency benchmarks. Mandate a maximum Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) score of 1.25 or lower to ensure the facility uses the most efficient technology available.
  • On-site clean energy. Require the data center to generate a percentage of its own power (50% is a reasonable starting demand) via renewable or zero-emission resources to mitigate strain on the existing grid. Carbon-neutral data centers already exist throughout the country.1

Environmental runoff and resource stewardship

The asks

A typical hyperscale data center can consume hundreds of millions of gallons of water per year.2 Treat water as the scarce, contested resource it is.

  • Water capture and retention. Require large-scale data centers to capture and retain all water runoff on-site to protect local waterways from pollution. Require analysis that models data center performance under varying climatic conditions and drought scenarios.
  • Permeable surfaces and heat mitigation. Demand the use of porous pavement for parking lots and the installation of cool roofs or green roofs to reduce both heat island effects and the temperature of stormwater runoff.
  • Water conservation mandates. Developers must disclose the physical and legal availability of their proposed water supply early in the planning phase. Mandate closed-loop cooling systems or waterless air-cooling technologies to minimize freshwater consumption.
  • Wastewater and reclaimed water use. Demand that data centers use treated municipal wastewater (reclaimed water) for cooling needs instead of competing with residents for the local drinking water supply.

Noise mitigation

The asks

Constant low-frequency hum is the complaint that survives every other promise. Get it in writing before approval, not after the cooling fans are running.

  • Property line decibel limits. Municipalities should demand that sound levels not exceed 45 to 55 dBA at the property boundary of residential zones.
  • Low-frequency assessment. Acoustic assessments must specifically account for low-frequency noise and constant hum, which are often more disruptive at night when ambient noise levels drop and which standard A-weighted measurements understate.

Lifecycle and transparency

The asks

A data center's first year is the developer's pitch. Year ten and the day after vacancy are the municipality's problem unless you write the rules now.

  • Waste heat recovery. Mandate that the data center submit a feasibility study for heat capture or heat recovery for use inside the building or in nearby facilities.
  • Annual PUE reporting. The data center must publicly report its Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) score on an annual basis so the community can verify the efficiency promises made at approval.
  • Decommissioning plans and surety bonds. Require a comprehensive decommissioning plan, backed by a financial surety bond, before approval. This ensures that if the facility is vacated, the developer is legally responsible for the safe removal of electronic waste and for site restoration.

Community and economic reinvestment

The asks

A handful of permanent jobs and a tax abatement is not a community benefit. These are.

  • Enforceable Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs). Require legally binding CBAs with specific benchmarks for job creation and local hiring. A reasonable floor: at least 40 to 50% of the workforce must be residents of the local municipalities.
  • Direct financial contributions. Demand contributions to community improvement funds for local priorities such as STEM education, public parks, property tax relief grants for seniors, or workforce training programs.
  • Tax revenue guarantees. Implement liquidated damages clauses where the developer must pay the municipality if the project fails to meet its projected annual tax revenue targets by a specific date. Crucially: do not rely on the developer's own financial projections. Require independent verification.
  • Infrastructure and connectivity. Require the developer to fund any infrastructure beyond the project site such as sidewalks, curbs, sewer, grid connections, or fiber-optic expansions that connect the data center and nearby neighborhoods.

What developers will tell you

Site selectors and developer counsel use a small number of well-rehearsed lines in council meetings. They work because they sound reasonable and because most council members have never negotiated a hyperscale data center before. Here is what to ask in return.

What they say

"This project will create thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue."

What to ask

How many permanent jobs after construction ends? Hyperscale data centers typically employ 30 to 50 people once operational.3 What percentage of the projected tax revenue is offset by abatements you are also requesting? Will you accept liquidated damages tied to those projections?

What they say

"We will use closed-loop or air-cooled systems. Water use will be minimal."

What to ask

Put the cooling design and projected gallons-per-day in the development agreement, with annual public reporting. What is the contingency if the chosen cooling system underperforms in extreme heat?

What they say

"We are committed to renewable energy."

What to ask

Renewable energy credits purchased on a market are not the same as on-site generation. What percentage of the facility's actual hourly load will be matched by physically delivered clean power, and over what timeline?

What they say

"We have a tight timeline. The site will go to another municipality if we have to wait."

What to ask

This is the lightning project pitch. The right response is to take the time discretionary review requires. A community that capitulates to artificial urgency gets the worst version of the deal. Communities that have said no or slowed approvals (Memphis, Newton County GA, Prince William County VA) have not been ruined by the loss.4

What they say

"The grid upgrades will benefit the whole region."

What to ask

Who pays for the upgrade in the rate case? If the answer is "all ratepayers" rather than "the developer," then the developer is asking residential customers to subsidize their build. Get the cost allocation in writing before approval.

What this means for the 3rd District

De Soto, Edgerton, and the corridor ahead

Kansas's 3rd District is on the leading edge of this fight. The Panasonic battery plant in De Soto reshaped the western corridor, and Meta's data center development on the same site has put the conversation about hyperscale facilities, water use, and tax abatement directly in front of Johnson County residents. More projects are coming. Edgerton, Gardner, Olathe, and the broader I-35 corridor are on every site selector's shortlist.

Sarah is running because federal policy on data center siting, energy permitting, water rights, and tax incentive structures has not caught up to the scale of what is being built. Municipalities deserve a member of Congress who will make sure federal preemption rules, EPA cooling-water standards, FERC transmission cost allocation, and tax credit conditioning all work for the communities hosting these facilities, not just the companies operating them.

Sources and further reading

  1. Examples of carbon-neutral or 100% renewable data center commitments: Microsoft (carbon-negative goal by 2030), Google (24/7 carbon-free energy by 2030), Equinix. See also: Uptime Institute, "Global Data Center Survey," annual reports. https://uptimeinstitute.com/resources/research/annual-survey
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, "United States Data Center Energy Usage Report" and follow-on research; The Washington Post, "A new front in the water wars: Your internet use." https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/04/25/data-centers-drought-water-use/
  3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, NAICS 518210 (Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services) employment data; Data Center Knowledge industry reporting on operational headcount. Construction-phase employment is significantly higher but temporary.
  4. Memphis xAI water and air permit organizing (Southern Environmental Law Center, 2024-2025); Newton County, Georgia, citizen pushback on Meta data center expansion (2023-2024); Prince William County, Virginia, "Data Center Alley" zoning fights (ongoing). Local press coverage and citizen coalition reports document the negotiation dynamics described here.

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