Furious residents of a growing tech city have railed against Silicon Valley giants who are “eating” their neighborhoods for massive data centers.
Meta, Google, Microsoft and Elon Musk’s X are all desperately fighting for space in the Atlanta real estate market, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Shocking new figures show that data center construction has exploded by as much as 76 percent in just six months, according to real estate company CBRE.
“The amount of growth we’ve seen over the last few years is really starting to catch people off guard,” David Guarino, a data ownership analyst at Green Street, told the Wall Street Journal.
City officials have banned new data facilities near transit stations after locals protested big tech turning their communities into computer warehouses.
“I think the city recognizes that data centers, while they add some value to abandoned office buildings, don’t really add to the city’s vibrancy or housing in the long run,” said Adair Park Neighborhood member Matthew Garbett. Association, told the Wall Street Journal.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens emphasized in a letter addressing the legislation that data center development “cannot be prioritized over people-centered urban development.”
He specifically emphasized the importance of “affordable housing, quality jobs and local shopping.”
But experts predict that power consumption in Atlanta’s data centers will continue to rise to a shocking 4,000 megawatts by 2028—30 times more than in 2012.
Experts predict that the power consumption of Atlanta’s data centers will continue to rise to a shocking 4,000 megawatts by 2028 – that’s thirty times more than in 2012. Pictured: the QTS data center complex under development in Fayetteville, Georgia
Matthew Garbett, a member of the Adair Park Neighborhood Association, has spoken out against the data centers
As the battle continues in Atlanta, other cities are taking notice.
Fairfax County, Virginia – another data center hotspot – has already followed suit with its own ban on facilities near train stations.
But data center companies remain challenging.
“No one wants zoning issues and challenges to development,” said Chris Gatch, a director of DC Blox, which is moving forward with two new suburban facilities despite the controversy.
Meanwhile, residents like Garbett point to success stories of community-oriented development: a former school transformed into affordable housing, and an old plank factory now bustling with apartments, offices and shops.
Yet technological growth across the country shows no signs of slowing down.
Musk’s X recently received a $10 million tax break for expansion, while Amazon Web Services is investing $10 billion in new data centers near Jackson, Mississippi.
Furious residents have railed against Silicon Valley giants ‘eating’ their neighborhoods for massive data centers
City officials have banned new data facilities near transit stations after locals protested big tech turning their communities into computer warehouses
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens emphasized in a letter addressing the legislation that data center development “cannot be prioritized over people-centered urban development.”
He specifically emphasized the importance of “affordable housing, quality jobs and local shopping.”
Residents of Ashburn, Virginia, home to as much as 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic, were also outraged as the city’s various data centers “destroyed their neighborhood.”
The six-square-mile city, with a population of just over 45,000, is in Loudon County and became the epicenter of a furious battle to prevent the state’s rural areas from being swallowed up by the Internet in July.
Virginia is currently home to the nation’s largest data center market, with 51 million square feet of vast arrays of networked computer servers — and another 58.6 million planned.
Officials in nearby Culpeper County introduced a plan in 2021 to invite data centers into the area to meet the surge in demand while protecting the landscape and residential appeal.
In a vote last week it approved plans to make Pasture its sixth data hub, angering locals.
The Culpeper County Board of Supervisors agreed to convert farmland into a 1.5 million square foot data center.
Millions of acres of American farmland are being lost to urban development, but one state in particular is seeing its countryside destroyed by the Internet
Social media giant Meta has unveiled plans for a massive data center that will bring 1,000 jobs to a rural county in America’s heartland
They voted by a narrow 4-3 vote to approve the sprawling Red Ace Data Center campus, despite complaints from locals about potential noise, traffic, energy capacity and wells drying up.
“These data centers will definitely destroy the county,” resident Don Haight said, according to The Washington Post.