The Nickel Report

Across the country, municipalities are reassessing how existing zoning rules apply to large-scale data centers, including facilities designed to support artificial intelligence and other computing-intensive applications. As developers move to secure suitable sites, adequate power capacity, and necessary approvals, cities and towns are considering whether current ordinances adequately address the scale, infrastructure demands, and operational features of these projects. In some jurisdictions, that process has led to the enactment of moratoriums, zoning amendments, or use restrictions. In others, it has prompted litigation. For practitioners advising developers, municipalities, and landowners, this is a space worth watching closely. Many of the issues surfacing now are familiar land-use questions in a new setting: how local governments classify emerging uses, when they may revise zoning rules in response to new development pressures, and what process is required when those changes affect pending or anticipated projects.