NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Data center development has become a political flashpoint in local communities nationwide in recent months. But a proposal to build a sweeping data campus next to the Nashville Zoo — potentially putting a group of endangered clouded leopards at further risk — has expanded this local fight into a viral, bipartisan campaign against data centers that’s drawn in celebrities and hundreds of thousands online.

Over 200 locals waited for hours outside a Metropolitan Council meeting Tuesday night for their chance to speak out against a proposed data center, which would sit on a property abutting the Nashville Zoo. DC BLOX, an Atlanta-based data company, wants to purchase the site and build a $700 million, 50-megawatt campus that would eventually include multiple data center buildings, the largest of which would be 261,000 square feet, according to The New York Times. It would use enough electricity to power tens of thousands of homes, though DC BLOX has pledged to pay for any necessary grid improvements to protect locals footing the bill.

That size of campus would likely have its own power substation and generator yards, emitting lots of noise and light — in this case, just 300 feet away from a breeding facility for the endangered clouded leopard, the Nashville Zoo’s most famous inhabitant.

“I’m unaware of any other zoo in the country that’s experienced this,” Zoo CEO Rick Schwartz told MS NOW. “We do not want our animals to be the experiment to gather that research.” 

Schwartz said he is especially worried about the potential for low-level sound frequencies to travel from the center to the zoo animals.

Interest in the fate of this center has spread far beyond the Nashville city limits. More than half a million people, including the country singer Brad Paisley, have signed a Change.org petition started by the Nashville Zoo calling on city leaders to block data center proposal.

“We boasted that we had 6,000 signatures in a day,” Schwartz said. “Now, we have 546,000 signatures, and the community really seems behind us.” 

At the hearing, council members considered a proposal to seize the property through the use of eminent domain, a proposal that passed its first procedural hurdle Tuesday night.

“I love the zoo, and I want the animals to stay happy and healthy,” 8-year-old Josiah Rivas said. His mother told MS NOW the data center fight has awakened her politically.

“I’ve actually been feeling disillusioned as well with the state of the world and have decided to become more politically active as a result,” she said. 

Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who has previously supported other data centers, came to the defense of the zoo, publicly saying the location is not fit for a data center. 

DC BLOX Vice President of Marketing Bill Thomson told MS NOW he is open to working with the zoo to mitigate any sound emission and limit impacts on the more than three thousand animals there. Thomson said the company’s experience with Nashville has changed how DC BLOX handles construction of future data centers.

“We would definitely try to engage earlier and deeper,” said Thompson, though believes people need to be open and adapt to the times. “Cities like Nashville will have to come to terms with the fact this is infrastructure for the future.”

In a statement, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell characterized DC BLOX’s community promises as “inaccurate, wishful thinking that is divorced from reality and indicative of a company trying to repair a PR problem.” 

Following public comments, council members moved forward with three different bills that would establish a moratorium for all future projects while adding new regulations governing their operation. O’Connell’s eminent domain legislation also moved forward and will be heard again by the city later this month. He maintains that the city has a legitimate need and use for the property.

Data centers house millions of computers that power cloud computing. Amid the rise of artificial intelligence, tech companies have been building the facilities across the country, spurred on by a Trump administration executive order from last March aimed at accelerating federal permitting for the massive facilities. The resulting building boom, however, has proved deeply controversial, as communities revolt against facilities that consume massive amounts of power and water. 

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