ALEXANDRIA, VA. — The sprawling, windowless warehouses housing rows of high-speed servers that power almost every part the world does on phones and computers are increasingly becoming fixtures on the American landscape, popping up in cities and suburbs across the United States.
Demand for data centers has surged in recent times because of the rapid growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence, and city and state governments alike are competing for lucrative deals with big tech corporations.
But as data centers increasingly move into more densely populated areas, adjoining to homes and schools, parks and recreation centers, some residents are pushing back against the world's strongest corporations because they worry in regards to the economic, social and environmental health of their communities.
In Northern Virginia, greater than 300 data centers are positioned within the rolling hills of the region's westernmost counties, bordering wooded bike paths that wind through the suburbs. But one among the world's newest proposals, Plaza 500, calls for constructing a 500,000-square-foot facility and adjoining substation just just a few hundred feet from townhomes, playgrounds and a community center.
The pitch to Fairfax County officials from Starwood Capital Group, the private investment firm founded by billionaire Barry Sternlicht, promised jobs and a major property tax increase. But data center critics say the incentives aren't enough to counteract the results of constructing the facilities so near homes.
Tyler Ray, a pacesetter within the fight against the Virginia project, fears that more data centers within the region could threaten the already strained power grid: Over 25% of all electricity produced in Virginia in 2023 went to data centers, a number that remains to be rising could even reach 46% by 2030 if data center growth continues at current rates. Some estimates also show that a medium-sized data center uses the identical water on daily basis as 1,000 homes, raising concerns about water costs. Ray also worries about air quality, as the huge diesel generators that power data center hardware send toxic clouds of pollutants into the atmosphere.
Ray and his neighbors tried to stop the event, but their efforts were largely unsuccessful. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors said in September that every one newly planned data centers would need to adhere to stricter zoning rules, however the Plaza 500 project was exempt.
“I don’t know how a regular resident, even someone who cares deeply about an issue, has any chance of competing against the data center industry,” Ray said the night regulators voted.
For local governments, locating data centers of their communities represents a financial boon: Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said in 2024 that Virginia's current data centers brought in $1 billion in tax revenue.
For average-sized facilities, data centers provide a small variety of direct jobs – often fewer than 100 jobs. Google recently announced that its investment in nearby Loudoun County, which incorporates two data centers, created about 150 direct jobs, a number that data center opponents say isn't definitely worth the effort. But data center advocates argue that the variety of indirect jobs comparable to construction, technology support and electrical work make the projects worthwhile. In the identical announcement, Google said their investment not directly created 2,730 jobs.
Kathy Smith, vice chairwoman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, voted in favor of the Plaza 500 proposal because she believes the expansion of knowledge centers in the world is inevitable and Fairfax County should profit from it.
“I have a responsibility to step back from what we’re doing and look at the bigger picture,” Smith said. “Data centers are not going away.”
On the opposite side of the country, in Morrow County, Oregon, Amazon Web Services has built not less than five data centers across the 4,200-person town of Boardman, nestled amongst sprawling farmland dotted with mint beds and wind turbines next to the Columbia River.
Last yr, AWS paid about $34 million in property taxes and costs stipulated within the agreements after receiving a $66 million tax break. These payments, along with the corporate's charitable donations of $1.7 in 2023, were instrumental in modernizing infrastructure and strengthening services. Those funds went toward a brand new chief fire engine, a faculty resource officer and $5,000 in grants for homebuyers, totaling not less than $2.8 million.
“This street here? Without AWS, this wouldn't have happened,” said Boardman Mayor Paul Keefer, sitting in the passenger seat of Police Chief Rick Stokoe's patrol car and pointing out the window at construction workers hauling away dirt and laying pavers.
AWS has relationships with local officials, including Keefer and Stokoe, both of whom voted on whether to give the company tax breaks. Some former county commissioners and residents worry those relationships are too cozy.
Kevin Miller, AWS vice president of global data centers, said in an interview with the Associated Press: “Our interest is in being a model corporate citizen and really being a partner to these communities.”
These officials are no longer in office. But the recent data center deal between Morrow County officials and AWS, which gives the company an estimated $1 billion in tax breaks over 15 years to build five new data centers, raised eyebrows again.
Two former Morrow County commissioners, Jim Doherty and Melissa Lindsay, unsuccessfully pushed in 2022 for AWS to pay more taxes in negotiations for a new data center.
“We didn’t want to blow it up. We didn’t want to drive them away,” Lindsay said. “But there were better offers.”
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