Before taking a position, find out what this specific facility would require from local power, water, land, roads, and public services—and what enforceable benefits and protections the community would receive in return. A project’s size, design, cooling system, power supply, and permitting path matter; the label “data center” alone does not tell you its effects.
Start with the proposal, not the category
Data centers can contribute jobs and tax revenue, but they can also add demand to electricity and water systems and change conditions near the site. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) identifies community engagement as a central siting concern. The practical question is not whether data centers are good or bad in general; it is whether this proposal’s documented costs, benefits, and protections fit your community.
Ask the developer and local officials to identify the project’s current design and likely alternatives. Request the expected construction and operating timeline, facility size and phases, cooling approach, proposed power source, and any plans for expansion. Ask which estimates are preliminary, what assumptions they use, and when updated information will be available. A project that changes substantially after review may have different resource needs or impacts.
Find out who decides and when residents can weigh in
There may be several separate decisions rather than one vote on the whole project. The path depends on the location and proposal, so get a written list of approvals, responsible bodies, public-comment opportunities, and expected dates.
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- Which local bodies decide zoning, land use, site plans, building permits, roads, or other local matters?
- Which state or federal agencies review environmental permits, power facilities, transmission lines, or other parts of the project?
- Which decisions are discretionary, and which are limited to checking whether a proposal meets existing rules?
- Where can residents read the applications and technical studies, submit written comments, speak at hearings, and see responses?
- Who is the named contact responsible for answering questions and publishing project updates?
Do not assume that a town or county controls every part of the project. Fairfax County, Virginia, for example, describes county responsibilities for land-use and zoning separately from energy matters handled by the Virginia State Corporation Commission. That division is specific to the county’s account and should not be treated as a map of authority elsewhere. Ask local officials to identify the agencies and legal steps for your site.
Ask the developer to publish a milestone schedule, resource estimates, and economic analyses, and to explain any information it will not release. If confidentiality is claimed, ask which precise material is withheld, on what basis, and whether a non-confidential summary can be provided. Residents need enough information to evaluate the proposal before key decisions are made, not only after approvals are effectively settled.
Get project-specific power and water estimates
Ask for expected peak and annual electricity demand, projected water withdrawals and consumption, and estimates for both construction and operation. Require the developer or utility to state the measurement period, assumptions, proposed facility phases, and how demand could change over time. National or regional statistics can give context, but they cannot establish what a particular site will use.
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For perspective, EPRI reports that data centers accounted for 1.5% of global electricity consumption in 2024, while its reported U.S. data-center water use was 17.4 billion gallons in 2023. These figures describe different geographies, years, and resources; neither predicts the needs of a proposed facility.
Electricity and grid costs
- Can the existing grid serve the project reliably while meeting existing customers’ needs?
- What new generation, transmission, substations, or distribution upgrades are proposed, and who pays the capital and ongoing costs?
- How will regulators and utilities assign project-related costs among the developer, customer classes, and other ratepayers? What protections or rules apply locally?
- What happens if the project’s demand exceeds its forecast or requires additional grid work?
“Will bills go up?” is too broad to answer without understanding which costs are caused by the project and how local regulators allocate them. Fairfax County’s explanation distinguishes a facility’s direct electricity use from potential recovery of infrastructure costs through rates and discusses Virginia-specific oversight and legislation. That description is not a prediction about rates or rules in another state.
Water supply and wastewater
- Where will the water come from, and what are projected withdrawals and consumption by season?
- What cooling system is proposed, and how does its water use change during hot weather, drought, or water restrictions?
- What wastewater or discharge will result, where will it go, and how will water quality be monitored?
- Were water reuse, lower-water cooling, a different design, or another site considered? Who would pay for any new water or wastewater infrastructure?
Ask the relevant utility or water authority whether the system can meet the project’s needs without reducing availability for residents, farms, businesses, or ecosystems. EPRI identifies water availability as a community concern; the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) recommends examining water stress, quality, facility design, and local conditions.
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Ask what nearby residents and the environment may experience
Request project-specific studies based on local conditions, including a baseline where needed to distinguish existing conditions from effects caused by construction and operation. Ask for proposed limits, monitoring locations and schedule, public reporting, a complaint process, and corrective action if a limit is exceeded.
- What construction traffic, work hours, and noise are expected, and how will routes and disruptions be managed?
- What routine equipment noise and nighttime lighting are forecast for nearby homes and other sensitive locations?
- What visual screening, setbacks, building design, or other measures are proposed?
- Will backup generators or on-site power produce air emissions, and how will operation and emissions be tracked?
- What effects could construction, water use, or wastewater discharge have on water quality?
Ask whether the site is near homes, schools, farms, historic properties, sensitive habitats, or constrained water resources, and whether less disruptive sites or designs were evaluated. If multiple large facilities are proposed in the area, ask how the combined demand and impacts on shared power, water, roads, and air resources will be assessed. One proposal’s study may not describe cumulative effects. Local standards and applicable law determine which analyses and conditions are required.
Calculate public value after incentives and costs
Request a plain-language fiscal analysis over the project’s expected life, with assumptions and timing visible. It should include expected taxes and other payments, abatements or exemptions, grants, and public spending on roads, utilities, emergency services, or other infrastructure. Compare the expected net public benefit with what would be received under ordinary tax treatment.
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Separate temporary construction work from permanent operating jobs. Ask for counts by phase and occupation, wage ranges, qualifications, local hiring and apprenticeship plans, and any training commitments. Incentives should be evaluated alongside the number and quality of permanent jobs they are intended to support—not just headline investment or construction employment. Urban Institute examples illustrate why incentive duration and expected permanent jobs should be considered together; those examples are jurisdiction-specific, not estimates for your town.
Fairfax County offers one local illustration of why figures need their geography and date attached: the county reported $110.6 million in data-center tax revenue for tax year 2026, about 1.9% of its FY 2027 General Fund revenue. That is not a general estimate of what another town would receive.
Ask whether incentives or agreements require measurable performance, public progress reports, and repayment or other consequences if promised outcomes are missed. A community-benefit agreement should specify who is bound, what actions are required, when they are due, how they are funded and reported, who can enforce the agreement, and what happens if a commitment is not met. Benefits such as workforce training, tax revenue, schools, or parks should be specific enough to verify and timed to reach the communities experiencing the project’s effects.
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Make commitments last beyond approval
Approval is not the end of the project’s local effects. Before decisions are made, identify who will monitor energy, water, emissions, noise, traffic, and community commitments after construction; whether results will be public; and how residents can report a problem. For each condition, ask which agency has enforcement authority and what remedy is available if the developer or operator does not comply.
Ask whether permits or agreements require renewed review if the facility expands or its power and water needs change. A promise that is not assigned to a responsible party, monitored, and tied to a remedy may be difficult for residents to rely on.
Use the same comparison for every option
If the town is considering multiple sites, designs, or proposals, compare them using the same measures rather than allowing each applicant to choose its own headline figures. Record the source and date of each estimate, distinguish committed terms from projections, and mark missing information as unknown rather than treating it as zero.
| Comparison area | What to compare |
|---|---|
| Resources and infrastructure | Peak and annual electricity demand; water source, seasonal demand, and cooling; required power, water, wastewater, and road upgrades; cost allocation and rate protections. |
| Local effects | Construction and routine noise, lighting, air and water impacts, traffic, land-use fit, and cumulative effects with other nearby projects. |
| Economic return | Construction and permanent jobs, wages and hiring commitments, taxes and other payments, incentives, and public costs over the project life. |
| Public safeguards | Quality and availability of project information, public participation, enforceable benefit commitments, monitoring, reporting, and remedies. |
BPC’s planning framework emphasizes that projects and communities differ; the acceptable trade-offs depend on local goals and evidence. A reasonable position can therefore be conditional: support may depend on specified protections or verified benefits, while opposition may rest on unresolved impacts, unaffordable public costs, inadequate information, or commitments that cannot be enforced.
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