Data Centers: Daily Notes | July 29, 2026

Bastrop, Texas

Bastrop County residents held a community-led town hall calling for greater oversight of data center development on July 22, focused largely on EdgeConneX's Cedar Creek projects near Wolf Lane and FM 535, where one facility is under construction and two more are in development.

Community-led town hall calls for data center oversight

The Elgin Courier - serves Elgin, Texas, and wider Bastrop County. Founded by Miles Hill, the paper has been published weekly since 1890

The Elgin CourierDylan Roddy

Elgin attorney Nick Lealos proposed a "Bastrop Bill of Rights" that would require developers seeking tax abatements to disclose water and electrical usage, publish project documents online, and support a citizen advisory committee. Cameron Dodd, political director for IBEW Local 520, said data centers have become one of the region's largest sources of construction work and argued tax abatements could be used to require labor agreements rather than blocking projects outright. Commissioner Butch Carmack said in a letter read at the meeting that state law limits the county's ability to block private developments that meet legal requirements, leaving tax abatements as one of its few negotiating tools; the county is currently updating its abatement policy, and a separate Pacifico Energy data center proposal remains under review.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who attended, called for a statewide one-year pause on new data center development, saying the state has moved too fast without adequate safeguards on water use, electric demand and land preservation.

Pulaski County, Arkansas

The Pulaski County Quorum Court voted down a proposed data center moratorium 10-3 Tuesday night after critics said the measure would have given AVAIO Digital's Wrightsville project a "free pass" from regulation.

The failed ordinance would have imposed a 12-month pause on new data centers but exempted AVAIO's first phase, a 30-acre, two-facility buildout projected to draw 150 megawatts of power and use up to 4 million gallons of water a day. It would have applied only to the company's future expansion phases, which could eventually reach a full gigawatt of power draw. An amendment from Justice of the Peace Steven Person meant to close that carveout also failed 8-6, after Deputy County Attorney Dominique Lane said its retroactivity language wouldn't actually cover AVAIO's phase one plans, though it would have reduced the county's legal exposure to a lawsuit.

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AVAIO Digital

The vote came amid reports that AVAIO's legal team had been in contact with the county attorney on the carveout language, and that Justice of the Peace Dianne Curry, who introduced the moratorium, had consulted with Entergy on its wording. County Judge Barry Hyde enforced strict decorum during the meeting, warning attendees against outbursts and having a spectator removed for clapping. Justice of the Peace Patricia Young-Baker proposed a tour of a data center facility before the meeting closed, suggesting the court may revisit the issue.

Harrison County, Kentucky

Harrison County leaders held a standing-room-only public forum where residents voiced near-unanimous opposition to data centers ahead of a planned moratorium vote, even though no data center proposals currently exist for the county.

Harrison County leaders hear public opposition to data centers ahead of moratorium vote

Harrison County Judge Executive Jason Marshall said the forum was held before asking the fiscal court to vote on a data center moratorium.

WKYTMadison Carmouche-Soward

Judge Executive Jason Marshall said he wanted public input before asking the fiscal court to vote on a moratorium, and when he asked attendees to raise their hands if they opposed data centers, everyone in the room did. Marshall said that mirrored a survey of 1,500 people in which 80 percent said they opposed data centers. Resident Deana Roark argued the community shouldn't be pressured into accepting the facilities, saying there are better ways to pursue development than pushing people out of their communities for profit. Other residents raised questions about what would happen to large data center buildings if a company later decided to leave.

The Harrison County Fiscal Court is scheduled to vote on the data center moratorium at its Aug. 11 meeting.

DeSoto County, Florida

DeSoto County commissioners unanimously passed a one-year pause on new data center applications Tuesday, though the moratorium won't cover a massive project already planned just outside Arcadia.

The pause halts acceptance, processing and approval of new applications for a year, giving the county time to study impacts and craft regulations. It excludes a project originally proposed as a 34-acre site at a decommissioned natural gas plant near Roan Street, which county emails and rezoning filings show could expand to more than 1,000 acres. The county's planning commission had recommended extending the moratorium to cover that project for two years, but County Attorney Valerie Vicente urged commissioners to stick with the one-year, project-exempt version, saying it carried less legal risk and could be extended in six-month increments as regulations are developed.

Corpus Christi, Texas

The Corpus Christi City Council has agreed to develop new land use regulations for future data center projects, after noticing a pattern of developers choosing sites outside city limits.

At-large Councilman Mark Scott said recent data center proposals have shown companies deliberately locating projects in surrounding counties rather than within Corpus Christi, avoiding city regulations in the process. He said the goal now is to strike a balance between protecting property owners' rights and making sure new data centers don't create negative impacts on neighboring properties.

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Pulaski County, Arkansas

A Pulaski County judge dismissed the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's public records lawsuit seeking contract details tied to Google's $4 billion West Memphis data center, ruling the case belongs before the state Public Service Commission rather than circuit court.

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Google is announcing a new $4 billion investment in Arkansas through 2027, which will include Google’s first data center in the state — located in West Memphis — along w…

GoogleOct 02, 2025

Circuit Court Judge Tim Fox wrote that with no final agency decision yet on the records dispute, any future appeal would go to the Arkansas Court of Appeals, not a trial court. The newspaper had sought details of a special rate contract between Google and Entergy Arkansas, including Google's payments to the utility and contributions tied to Entergy's planned Cypress Solar project, a 600-megawatt and 350-megawatt battery solar facility near Pine Bluff expected to cost $1.6 billion. The commission approved the underlying Entergy-Google rate contract in December and has since withheld some records citing trade secret protections, while also telling the newspaper it will no longer answer any of its questions given the pending litigation.

Democrat-Gazette lawyer John Adams said the paper will now petition to intervene directly in the Entergy-Google case before the commission, seeking disclosure of Google's Cypress Solar contributions and ratepayer protections. Executive editor Lee Wolverton criticized the commission's decision to stop communicating with the paper, calling it a refusal to communicate with the public the newspaper represents.

Janesville, Wisconsin

The Town of Janesville's Planning and Zoning Committee voted Tuesday to recommend a data center moratorium to the Town Board, after a public meeting drew such a large crowd that officials moved it to the Woodman's Sports and Convention Center to fit everyone.

Town of Janesville Planning and Zoning Committee recommends data center moratorium

The Town of Janesville’s Planning and Zoning Committee voted Tuesday to recommend a moratorium on data centers to the Town Board, following a public meeting where residents expressed broad opposition to the facilities.

WMTV15 NewsNicole Herzog

Committee Chairman Doug Rebout said there are no current data center plans for the town, though officials have received an inquiry about a possible application. He said the meeting was meant to let residents weigh in on whether a moratorium is needed, giving the town time to study the issue further. Attendees raised concerns about preserving agricultural land, and several pointed to other municipalities that have already enacted moratoriums as a model to follow. One attendee, Dan Kerns, said he believed most of the town didn't want a data center nearby, while another asked officials to go further than a temporary pause and enact an outright ban.

The Town Board has final say on the moratorium, with a vote possible as soon as Monday. In June, the separate Janesville City Council voted unanimously to end plans for a potential data center at the former GM/JATCO site.

Ames, Iowa

A proposed 100,000-square-foot Lightedge data center near the Ames Municipal Airport still faces a lengthy federal approval process before it can move forward, according to city council documents.

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Municipal Airport

Airport History In 1943, the citizens of Ames voted 1,225 to 257 to establish a municipal airport. In the beginning, two turf runways pioneered the development of the James Herman Banning Ames Municipal Airport. Since then, two paved runways, numerous aircraft and…

City of Ames, Iowa

The Des Moines-based company's facility would replace farmland near the airport and is smaller in scale than data centers serving major national or international clients. Because selling the land would trigger a lengthy federal review, city and company documents indicate both sides favor a long-term lease instead, which first requires the city to ask the FAA to release the land from federal obligations and approve a land use change before any lease talks with Lightedge can proceed. Any resulting lease would cap square footage, water use and noise, while generating revenue for the airport's budget and adding to the city's tax base.

The city council hasn't voted on the lease yet, though documents show Lightedge wants control of the site within the next few months. Since the proposal surfaced over a month ago, residents including Juniper Schaffer-Matchie and Kaysen Mcelroy have voiced opposition, citing worries about environmental effects and concerns that a data center doesn't fit Ames's identity as a community focused on sustainability.

Indianapolis, Indiana

Nearly two weeks after Indianapolis's Metropolitan Development Commission approved the DC BLOX data center project near Washington Street and Shadeland Avenue, opponents gathered Tuesday to plan their next moves, including a possible lawsuit.

Indianapolis Project

DC BLOX Thunderbird Data Center in Indianapolis Comprehensive Community Protection Pledge Our sustainability, environmental, and civic commitments are

DC BLOX

Organizer Megan Lapa said the group views the approval as just the beginning of a longer fight, not the end of it. Volunteers are being recruited and funds raised to support a potential legal challenge, which Lapa said could come in the form of a petition for judicial review filed in Marion Superior Court, asking a judge to determine whether the city followed proper procedure in approving the project. No such petition has been filed so far.

The group is also pushing residents to support a citywide moratorium on new data center approvals, which is set to go before the Indianapolis City-County Council in August.

Doña Ana County, New Mexico

A Doña Ana County Commissioners Court meeting on Project Jupiter erupted into confrontation Tuesday, ending with three people arrested and booked without bond after a chaotic public comment session.

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Project Jupiter Together

The meeting drew an overflow crowd of supporters and opponents of the Oracle-backed data center project. Supporters pointed to construction and contract jobs, while opponents focused on the resource costs of the facility. Of 30 people scheduled to give public comment, fewer ended up speaking after two attendees were escorted out, and a brief confrontation broke out between security, sheriff's deputies and protesters, delaying the meeting before it resumed.

Project Jupiter representatives told commissioners the project has already generated nearly $80 million in state and county tax revenue and employs almost 700 residents, according to a separate Oracle release. Representatives pledged more community outreach but said they'd need to follow up on questions about the project's local heat impact. They also confirmed an air permit needed to power the facility is still pending an October hearing before the New Mexico Environmental Department, without which representatives said the structure would be "just a big warehouse."

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