Landscapes in Crisis: Data Centers, Zoning, and Permitting in 12 States

On May 4, 2026, after leaving a room full of residents voicing their concerns over environmental impacts, three commissioners in Box Elder County, Utah, voted unanimously over a Zoom meeting to approve one of the largest data center projects in the world. Some residents have now filed a referendum to challenge the approval. This story of a community rising up to resist data center (DC) expansion is not unique to Utah.

Communities all around the country are showing up to city and county meetings to make themselves heard. Many residents, activists, scholars, and journalists are asking critical questions about the energy use, water use, and noise levels of DCs. Zoning for land use and permitting for energy & water use are also critical steps in DC development, but information about these steps can be difficult to uncover, vary widely from one municipality to another, and change rapidly. 

Our project

We worked with our client, Rooted Futures Lab, to illuminate DC zoning & permitting in 12 states: Georgia, Virginia, Michigan, Arizona, Oregon, California, Louisiana, Colorado, Nevada, New York, New Mexico, and Texas. These states were identified by Rooted Futures Lab due to the increasing intensity of data center proposals and resistance. We dove into the complex world of local governance and spoke to practitioners, lawyers, and journalists to understand how local and state processes work, what journalists are seeing on the ground, and where our research can shine the most light for communities, advocates, and researchers. 

Our guiding questions were:

1. How are proposed, existing, or expanding data centers navigating zoning and permitting in these 12 states?
2. How do zoning and permitting processes reveal or obscure information about data center proposals?
3. How are communities and government agencies welcoming or contesting data center development?

These questions were not easy to answer due to a widespread lack of transparency. Information about DC proposals is often hidden behind non-disclosure agreements and closed doors. Permitting documents are typically not publicly available and although they could be requested through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process, the process can be lengthy. As such, we looked for information about data center zoning & permitting by:

• Monitoring media,
• Conducting informational interviews with journalists and advocates, and
• Searching for publicly available documents, such as:
  • agendas or minutes for meetings where local government agencies discussed zoning for data centers,
  • local ordinances or resolutions made in response to data center proposals,
  • permitting documents that had already been requested through previous FOIA requests, or
  • requests filed publicly with state agencies to approve construction of power plants to fuel data centers.

We highlighted the developments in each of the states through case reports and tracked information for inclusion in Rooted Futures Lab’s Data Center Impact Dashboard. We are also producing a report which we hope will aid & inform other researchers, the journalists and advocates we interviewed, and community members on their way to meetings with their elected officials.

After reviewing our findings from each state, we were able to identify patterns cropping up in multiple states: what zoning districts data centers are being approved in, how zoning ordinances are being updated in response, what kinds of permits are required (especially regarding energy or water use), and how communities and governments are responding to the wide-spread lack of transparency. Three of these trends are:

Zoning: Past, Present, Future

Before the data center boom, most states, counties, and cities had no language in their ordinances to describe or regulate data centers. If data centers were specified, they were approved as industrial or commercial sites, which can be insufficient to capture the unique scale and impact of hyperscale data centers. Many municipalities have adapted their zoning codes to include, at the very least, a definition of data centers which allows local authorities to better assess siting and zoning of DCs. 

Zoning has become a point of conflict more broadly, as DC developers submit requests for rezoning, special-use permits, or conditional use in local districts. For example, in Nevada, no state or county-wide regulations stipulate where data centers can (or cannot) be built. During the summer of 2025, the Lyon County Planning Commission unanimously voted to approve the rezoning of more than 500 acres of agricultural land for a huge data center campus in the Mason Valley about 50 miles southeast of Reno, sparking community concern over water use.

More Fossil-Fuel Energy

Unsurprisingly, most states are expanding energy production to meet the energy needs of expanding data centers. Inconsistent with climate and EJ goals, an unprecedented amount of this new energy generation is coming from non-renewable sources.

• Arizona: APS, the state’s largest energy utility company, has introduced a “Growth Pays for Growth” model arguing additional natural gas generation is essential to address unprecedented requests from extra-large energy users.
• Louisiana: Entergy Louisiana intends to build ten natural-gas power plants for Meta’s two Richland Parish projects.
• New York: A controversial fracked gas pipeline from Pennsylvania to New York received the required water permits from the NY Department of Conservation (after being denied thrice) to add energy capacity to the state’s grid, driven in part by data center demand.

How Much Juice Do Data Centers Need? 

Lack of transparency and information continues to be a pressing justice concern across the country. To that end, various states have attempted to pass or have passed regulations to make data center energy and water use more transparent. It is worth noting that across all states in our research, most of these bills have failed to pass.

• California: SB 57 mandated the state’s Public Utilities Commission to assess if energy costs were being passed on to residents. AB 93, vetoed by the Governor, would have required data centers to disclose and certify their water use.
• Georgia: SB 34 and HB 1059 attempt to reach similar outcomes as California’s laws, but through different regulatory means.
• Virginia: HB 496 requires water use reporting for data centers.
• Oregon: HB 3698, introduced in 2025, would require data centers to report water and electricity used on a quarterly basis.
• Colorado: SB 26-102, which would make DC water use more transparent, is under consideration. 

What comes next?

Our final report will house, among other things, our 12 case studies, analysis of major trends, and policy recommendations. It will also include downloadable guides about data center zoning & permitting to aid community members in understanding those processes. Our report could support advocacy efforts, as well as inform exploration of future research questions such as: How do data center proposals, and their use of zoning and permitting, differ between advantaged and disadvantaged communities?

We intend to share our information far and wide. If you or anyone in your network is interested in accessing our report, please fill out the following form and we will reach out with the report once it is ready to share. 

Interested in learning more about data center expansion and land use? Here are some helpful resources:

National League of Cities, Community Strategies to Address Data Center Development and Operation

Urban Land Institute, Local Guidelines for Data Center Development

The Maybe, Where Cloud Meets Cement