TL;DR

  • Communities should include digital infrastructure in long-term land-use and development plans before individual projects are proposed.
  • Early engagement allows developers to understand local priorities and incorporate community feedback into project designs.
  • Concerns about data centers increasingly include broader anxieties surrounding artificial intelligence, resource use, and community impact.
  • The OIX Digital Infrastructure Framework helps municipalities identify the questions they should consider when evaluating digital infrastructure.
  • Responsible development begins with determining whether a project is appropriate for a particular community and location.

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Data center development is accelerating as artificial intelligence creates greater demand for computing capacity, power, and supporting infrastructure. At the same time, many municipalities are being asked to evaluate projects that were never anticipated in their zoning codes or long-range development plans.

A recent episode of the Data Center Frontier Show explored how communities can prepare for this growth before a specific project arrives. Host Matt Vincent spoke with Ilissa Miller, Founder and CEO of iMiller Public Relations and a board member of the Open Infrastructure Exchange (OIX), about proactive planning, community engagement and the OIX Digital Infrastructure Framework.

Communities regularly use comprehensive plans to determine where residential, commercial, and industrial development should occur. Digital infrastructure, however, is often missing from those discussions. Even land already designated for industrial development may not explicitly allow data centers, creating uncertainty for residents, developers, and public officials when a project is proposed.

The OIX Digital Infrastructure Framework is intended to help municipalities consider these issues earlier. Rather than advocating for the approval of specific projects, the framework helps local leaders evaluate land use, infrastructure capacity, and community needs while identifying which questions fall under municipal authority and which require coordination with utilities or other government entities. Proactive planning also allows communities to distinguish among different forms of digital infrastructure. A municipality may determine that it can support a large AI campus, while another may be better suited for colocation, edge infrastructure, or smaller facilities serving local businesses and institutions.

Community opposition to data centers increasingly extends beyond concerns about power, water, noise, construction, and taxes. Data centers have also become highly visible symbols of artificial intelligence, causing broader questions about automation, surveillance, and AI governance to enter local land-use debates.

Those concerns should be acknowledged, but communities must also understand the specific decision before them. Questions about national or statewide AI policy are different from determining whether a particular property is appropriate for digital infrastructure. Clearly explaining the proposed facility, its potential impacts, and the stages of the approval process can help residents better understand what is and is not being decided.

For developers, meaningful community engagement should begin before a conditional-use application is submitted or a project design is finalized. This process includes studying the community, understanding the history of the proposed site and identifying the priorities of residents, businesses and local officials.

Listening sessions, open houses, business forums, and community webinars can help developers gather that information. However, engagement is most effective when community feedback can still influence the project. Developers should explain what they heard, identify what changed, and provide increasingly detailed information as plans progress.

Community benefits should also reflect local priorities rather than follow a standard formula. Depending on the community, residents may prioritize workforce development, education, transportation improvements, tax revenue, environmental protections, or preservation of local land.

Community acceptance is not solely a communications challenge. Developers must also determine whether a project belongs on the proposed property. Some locations may be unsuitable because they require significant conversion of agricultural or other valued land, particularly when existing industrial properties or brownfield sites are available.

This means responsible development may sometimes involve deciding not to move forward. Evaluating land use, infrastructure availability, and community needs before acquiring or pursuing a site can reduce conflict and help ensure that projects align with local planning goals.

To hear the full conversation with Ilissa Miller on preparing communities for AI data center development, listen to the Data Center Frontier Show podcast episode here.