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Stop Bad Data Centers

Exposing AI Data Center Threats and Harms

Gateway 1

Site Selection & Land Acquisition

Keep bad data centers from acquiring land in your community

Before a data center is ever announced publicly, developers are already quietly buying up land, or sometimes just buying the right to buy the land within a certain time period if the zoning changes and permits they need come through. They use anonymous LLCs and real estate brokers to approach landowners without revealing who’s really buying. Sometimes it’s the landowners who apply for the zoning reclassification. Their goal is simple: lock up the land before anyone notices or objects.

This is the “quiet phase” is when communities have the most power but the least awareness. Without land, no data center can be built. That’s why smart communities are watching public land records, passing temporary moratoriums, and updating zoning rules to require stricter standards for industrial projects.

Early opposition matters. Developers are taking risky bets on these projects, and any sign of community resistance makes them nervous.

The earlier you organize, the more leverage you have.

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Key Targets (Gatekeepers)

  • Major landowners and leaseholders: Property owners targeted for data center land assembly
  • Real estate brokers and agents: Intermediaries facilitating land transactions
  • County recorders and assessors: Officials tracking property transfers and LLC formations
  • Local planning officials: Zoning administrators and planning departments
  • Business community stakeholders: Local chambers, business associations

Possible Interventions

  • Municipal Process Whisperer: Learn all you can about how zoning and other local decisions get made in your community and identify your target interventions
  • Municipal Moratorium Authority: Enact temporary moratoriums to create breathing room for proper policy development. Use Halt the Harm’s legislation tracker to identify state-level moratoriums. For example: Aurora, Illinois (Sept 2025) passed a 180-day moratorium (Ordinance O25-064) on data centers and warehouses, demonstrating municipal power to pause development for research and community input. Even cities with existing facilities can use this strategy.
  • Proactive Zoning Ordinances: Pass ordinances defining data centers as “industrial facilities with utility-scale impacts” BEFORE projects are announced. (Only works in places friendly to zoning): Example: Loudoun County’s Data Center Overlay District (2016) with clear standards for lot size, height, setbacks, and utilities. 
  • Avoid Vague Zoning Classifications: Early data center projects were mistaken for ‘agricultural uses’ due to ‘server farm’ terminology. Demand precise definitions to prevent misclassification under ‘technology’ or ‘light industrial’ categories that lack proper safeguards for the volume of air pollution, noise, or water that might be used
  • Consider noise ordinances to protect neighbors, wildlife, and nearby community spaces from data center noise, especially at night
  • Landowner Education Campaigns: Reach property owners with information about data center impacts and alternative development options
  • Public Records Monitoring: Track LLC formations, land transfers, zoning change requests, and unusual buying patterns to detect projects early
  • Community Resistance Messaging: Establish a narrative of public opposition that increases developer uncertainty and risk perception
  • Lay the groundwork: get your point of view into the public record early by speaking at public meetings or submitting written comments on issues related to data center development.
  • Property Rights Coalition Building: Unite nearby property owners around property value and quality of life concerns

Gateway Intervention

Campaign Playbook

Each campaign will have its own unique challenges and context. We are here to help talk through steps. The steps in this guide are informed by the experiences of many communities so we aren’t reinventing the wheel. Contact us to talk about your situation.

1. Scoping & Analysis:

Be a sleuth. Monitor county title and deed activity for unusual LLC formations and land transfers. Track utility company public documents for news about proposed rate increases and future load and transmission capacity needs. Contact local planning departments or other local sources of information for what they can share about inquiries or other indications of interest from potential data centers. Establish a community alert network to track local meeting agendas, review meeting reports, and have someone from your group attend as many planning, zoning, economic development, and other board and commission meetings as possible.

2. Technical Review & Comment:

Get educated about your state’s laws related to data center development. Draft and advocate for proactive zoning amendments. Conduct landowner outreach with information on alternatives to selling to a developer. Build a coalition with adjacent property owners. Pass your own noise ordinances and noise nuisance laws. Prepare industrial classification legal arguments.

3. Public Pressure & Appeals:

Organize public pressure campaigns on landowners. File challenges to any zoning variance requests. Connect landowners with alternative buyers. Generate media coverage of community opposition and highlight local impacts. Push for a moratorium or ban to take time to ensure development is in the best interest of the community.

Valuable Allies

You don’t need to take on bad data centers alone. There are organizations and experts who can help. Explore the Network to find other leaders, and discover organizations in the Alliance Map.

Zoning and Municipal Attorneys: Draft proactive ordinances and challenge variances

Land Use Planners: Review zoning, planning, and economic revitalization plans, make comments, and propose alternatives

Community Organizers: Mobilize residents and property owners

Local Journalists: Investigate and report on land assembly patterns

Land Trusts and Other Preservation Organizations: Can provide alternatives like conservation easements for property owners

Citizen advocacy groups (e.g. farmland preservationists, environmental and social justice groups, hunters, fishermen, taxpayer advocates, religious organizations): Build as broad an alliance as possible to demonstrate the high level of interest and engagement across the community on this issue

Local elected officials and policymakers: Find your allies as early as possible. There are good people in many of these positions. Find out where policy makers and future policy makers stand on the issue. Ask them to disclose where they think about how to manage potential data centers in the community.

Gateway 1: Site Selection & Land Acquisition

Resources & Documents

Essential tools and resource for this gateway.

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