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- Nashville Zoo launches petition opposing nearby data center project
- 375k people have signed the protest petition, local reps and politicians speak up
- Officials fear the data center could impact animal welfare, conservation and visitors
Nashville Zoo has become the latest high-profile opponent of American data center projects after multiple cities and states impose temporary restrictions on new builds.
The zoo launched an online petition to try to stop the plans for a proposed 69,000-square-foot facility to be built on neighboring land, and just one week later, it already has 375,000 signatures.
“Researchers caution that data centers also contribute to noise pollution, light pollution, and threaten water quality in surrounding communities,” the zoo wrote in a blog post.
Nashville Zoo raises animal welfare and conservation concerns
Nashville Zoo worries about the project’s impacts on its clouded leopard breeding program, but the keepers also look after other animals involved in other breeding and conservation programs. All in, 3,000 animals reside at the facility.
Looking ahead, the zoo also worries that the data center project could halt its plans to create a breeding facility for the Okapi.
“No one has shared studies or environmental impact assessments,” the zoo wrote online, referencing “growing concerns about data centers’ environmental and public health impacts nationwide.”
Metro Nashville Councilmember Courtney Johnston promised to be “doing everything in [her] power, legislatively and otherwise, to prevent this development next to our beloved zoo,” including filing a moratorium.
Johnston noted that while current plans include a single-storey, 10MW facility, expansion plans outline a three-storey, 40MW upgrade, a “dedicated substation, separate generator yards for each data center, stormwater basins, a guard house, internal access roads” and more.
Americans worry legislation isn’t protecting them
CEO Rick Schwartz also noted that the zoo has spent years discussing the purchase of the same land parcel next door, for an education and conservtion center.
“The building is already there,” he said (via Fox 17). “It would save the zoo an enormous amount of money. It would serve tens and tens of thousands of children for conservation education.”
Nashville residents aren’t the only US citizens speaking up about data center construction plans. The city of Seattle recently announced a one-year moratorium on new projects while it figures out how to legislate and regulate such projects.
However, ‘No New Data Centers’, a website that sprung up in response to the Nashville plans, warns that a Texas county was forced to drop its moratorium days after a developer sued. Separately, a North Carolina county is in court over similar issues, thus Nashville and indeed other US regions could prove ineffective in imposing moratoriums too.
DC BLOX, the company responsible for the proposed project, does not appear to have publicly commented on the backlash, nor has it publicly shared details of its Nashville investment. As a provider of data centers and other connected services for hyperscalers, partners and customers, it’s unclear what this specific site’s purpose would be.
"DC BLOX has heard and appreciates the concerns that have been raised about our newly proposed data center in Nashville near the zoo," the company told us.
"Over the past decade, DC BLOX has safely operated data centers near neighborhoods, schools, daycare centers, and businesses throughout the Southeast with no complaints or health issues. Data centers have been and are increasingly essential to support all our digital services. The proposed DC BLOX data center is not an AI factory but designed to be a communications facility needed to handle increasing regional Internet traffic, critical infrastructure that depends on proximity to the people it serves."
"We have reached out to community and zoo leaders to discuss how our project can responsibly address the concerns expressed about the Nashville project."
DC BLOX told us it would use closed-loop or waterless cooling, it would work with the local utility to fund its own power and any new infrastructure required, it would test and manage local noice levels, shield light fixtures and adhere to all federal and local environmental regulations.
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