Local communities have never had more power to demand the best from data centers.

I am not defending every Ohio project: Ohio’s consumer advocate says a hyperscale data center can use as much electricity as 100,000 homes, and new transmission and substations can leave other customers holding part of the bill if the utility contract is weak.

Ohio also shows that residents can force a better rule. In 2025, the Public Utilities Commission approved an AEP Ohio tariff that requires qualifying new data centers to pay for at least 85% of contracted capacity for up to 12 years, even when they use less. That does not settle water, land, noise, or tax questions. It does put more of the power-system risk on the customer that caused it.

Put in writing: Apply the same cost protection outside AEP territory. Publish the water estimate, road plan, emergency-service plan, noise limits, and tax terms before rezoning.

Virginia proves that weak siting and utility rules have consequences. The state watchdog found data centers built too close to homes, low-frequency noise complaints, and a forecast in which a typical Dominion residential customer could pay $14 to $37 more per month for generation and transmission by 2040. That forecast assumes very large, unconstrained growth; it is not a bill increase that has already happened.

The same report found 74,000 jobs supported, $5.5 billion in labor income, $9.1 billion in state GDP, and large local tax receipts. Most of the employment benefit came from construction. Virginia’s record contains both the benefit and the failure to set terms early enough.

Virginia changed its law in 2026. For a proposed facility of 100 megawatts or more, a locality now must get a sound assessment near homes and schools. It may also require study of water, farmland, parks, historic sites, and forests. The utility must describe the substations and transmission voltage needed for the project.

Put in writing: Use the new assessment before approval. Keep industrial facilities away from homes and schools, and put cost allocation, sound limits, water use, and transmission routes in public documents.

The national load is large and growing fast: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated that U.S. data centers used 176 terawatt-hours in 2023, or 4.4% of U.S. electricity. Its 2028 scenarios range from 325 to 580 terawatt-hours, or 6.7% to 12% of U.S. use.

That is a reason to require a power plan, not a reason to accept a vague promise that the grid will catch up. A project should show its phased demand, the generation and transmission needed to serve it, who pays, and what happens during the few hours when the system is tight.

Put in writing: Do not approve the full campus on the basis of a speculative load request; tie each phase to power that is funded and ready.

It can, because new generation, substations, and transmission have fixed costs. If the data-center load arrives late, uses less power than promised, or closes, those costs can move to other customers. Virginia’s watchdog modeled a $14 to $37 monthly increase by 2040 for a typical Dominion household under its high-growth case.

The answer depends on the tariff, which is the utility’s price and contract rule. Ohio’s AEP tariff requires large new data centers to keep paying for at least 85% of contracted capacity for up to 12 years. A town should ask for that kind of protection before supporting the project.

Put in writing: Require a separate large-load contract, customer-funded connection work, a long minimum-payment period, financial security, and an exit charge if the load disappears.

There is no honest answer without the cooling design and the local water balance. LBNL estimated 66 billion liters of direct U.S. data-center water consumption in 2023. It also estimated nearly 800 billion liters of indirect water consumption at the power plants that supplied the electricity.

The building-to-building range is enormous. In Virginia, most buildings in the state review used no more water than an average large office building, about 6.7 million gallons per year. Eleven buildings used more than 50 million gallons, and one used 243 million. Just over one-third of Virginia data-center water came from reclaimed water in 2023.

Quincy, Washington, uses a reuse system. Douglas County, Georgia, sends treated wastewater to Google. Compass reports that its Red Oak, Texas, campus uses no city water for cooling. Those are design choices a town can require or reward.

Put in writing: Publish annual and peak-day use by source, set drought rules, price drinking water correctly, and prefer reclaimed water, closed-loop systems, or air cooling where the full power-and-water tradeoff works locally.

A very large load can make reliability worse if it connects before generation and transmission are ready. It can also help finance new supply and operate more flexibly than a town may assume. Duke researchers modeled 76 gigawatts of new large loads with 0.25% annual curtailment and 126 gigawatts with 1%. The study covers large flexible loads, not data centers alone, and it is a model rather than a promise about any specific grid.

The useful question is whether the project contract gives the utility enough time and control. A phased connection, storage, limited curtailment, and a clear right to delay service until the system is ready can lower the risk.

Put in writing: Publish the connection study and the project’s reliability obligations. Do not make existing customers guarantee uninterrupted growth at any cost.

Noise is a real problem at some badly sited or badly designed facilities. Virginia found that about 10% of operating sites in its review appeared to have generated noise complaints. Most had not, mainly because of their location or design. Ordinary noise rules often miss the low-frequency hum that bothers neighbors.

Backup generators also emit nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and particles. In Northern Virginia they produced less than 4% of regional nitrogen-oxide emissions and no more than 0.1% of carbon-monoxide and particle emissions in the state review. That regional number does not answer what happens at the nearest house, which is why site-level permits and monitoring matter.

Put in writing: Require distance from homes, a third-party sound model, a low-frequency limit at the property line, testing hours for generators, downward-facing lights, a complaint process, and penalties that make the operator fix the problem.

A campus and its power lines can permanently change a place. Virginia found that 29% of operating data-center properties in its sample sat within 200 feet of residential zoning. The same review did not find clear evidence that nearby data centers had reduced home values, but it warned that the tight Northern Virginia housing market may hide an effect.

A town does not need to wait for a property-value study to avoid obviously bad siting. It can keep industrial uses away from homes and schools, favor already-industrial or previously developed land, set height and screening rules, and require the transmission route to be shown before approval.

Put in writing: Decide where these buildings and power lines belong before a developer files. Do not create exceptions parcel by parcel next to homes, schools, farms, parks, or historic land.

One building usually takes 12 to 18 months to construct, and a large campus can stay under construction for five to seven years. Virginia documented heavy trucks damaging a neighborhood access road and sometimes blocking school buses and emergency vehicles. Once open, the facility has far less daily traffic, but the fire, electrical, and backup-power systems still require a specific emergency plan.

Put in writing: Set truck routes and hours, require a road-repair bond, and make the developer fund the fire, rescue, water, and inspection capacity the project adds.

Permanent-job claims often are. Virginia found that a typical 250,000-square-foot building may have about 50 full-time workers, roughly half of them contractors. Construction is a different labor story: about 1,500 workers can be on one building at the peak, and a multi-building campus can provide years of work.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is actively organizing for these projects. IBEW says electrical subcontracting accounts for 45% to 70% of a typical data center’s construction budget, and some projects require several times a local union’s membership. The union also warns that the work will not last forever. That is the honest case: a large skilled-trades buildout, followed by a much smaller group of well-paid operating jobs.

Put in writing: Write prevailing wages, paid apprenticeships, local recruitment, and quarterly job reporting into the agreement. Publish construction jobs and permanent jobs as separate numbers.

Do not judge the deal by the investment headline. Judge the taxes the public will actually collect after exemptions, the infrastructure the public will pay for, and the risk left with residents. Virginia’s state sales-tax exemption was worth $928 million in fiscal 2023. Across five mature Virginia markets, data-center revenue ranged from less than 1% to 31% of local revenue at the time of the state review.

Some local deals have produced visible value. Loudoun attributes 38% of its fiscal 2026 General Fund to data centers. Henrico used data-center taxes to create a $60 million affordable-homeownership fund. A bad tax deal can still erase much of the upside.

Put in writing: Publish a 20-year tax schedule, every exemption, expected public costs, and clawbacks before the vote. Do not let a nondisclosure agreement hide the basic economics.

There are good signs, but no clean national proof of cause and effect. An August 2026 a16z article summarized Wells Fargo county data showing that counties with operating data centers had more housing, higher home values, lower unemployment, and more job growth since 2024. The article also says the comparison is skewed by places such as wealthy Loudoun County and fast-building Texas. Treat the chart as a lead, not a verdict.

The wage evidence is stronger but still needs a label. The same a16z piece used Indeed postings to show data-center pay premiums from 10% for electrical engineers to 64% for facilities managers. A Dallas Fed contact reported $45 per hour plus $150 per diem for data-center concrete work, compared with $28 to $32 elsewhere. These figures show a tight labor market; they do not guarantee that local residents get the jobs.

The best proof remains local and named: an audited budget, a water meter, a wage agreement, a road built, or a tax-funded program that residents can see.

Put in writing: Make the project report local hiring, wages, taxes, water, power, and public costs every year. Compare the promise with the result.

Yes. Ohio’s consumer advocate credits public engagement with helping produce the AEP settlement that shifts more unused-capacity risk to large data centers. Virginia now requires sound and utility assessments for new facilities of 100 megawatts or more and lets localities ask for water, farmland, park, historic-site, and forest analysis. Local governments still control many zoning, tax, road, and water decisions.

Timing matters. Once a town has rezoned the land, promised a tax package, and started utility work, its bargaining power falls. Residents should ask for the documents before the vote and insist that the standards are conditions of approval, not voluntary promises in a press release.

Put in writing: Ask one question at every meeting: where is this promise written, who measures it, and what happens if the company misses it?