Social Media and Website

Most likely, you may first learn about a proposed data center through social media. These posts are essential in beginning to organize. Reach out to others who have voiced opposition and to those who have shared concerns elsewhere. Start a social media page, typically using Facebook, and invite your tribe. Share your page in other local groups, including community pages and moms' pages. Your social platform should help inform, mobilize, and encourage engagement.

You will also want to set up a website. Many web building platforms are user-friendly. Google sites is free, but has limitations. Once you choose your building platform (which will be your hosting platform), you will also need to purchase a domain name. Your website will be the foundation of your online presence, clarify your purpose, outline your concerns, tell your story, and focus on your message.

In addition, you can reach out to local news outlets such as newspapers, television or radio with your concerns. You may also consider writing opinion pieces or articles to broaden awareness.

Form a Community Group - Research, Analyze, Apply

Share and Repeat

Read the Data Center Project as Submitted to the Planning Board

We also recommend reading through the project materials submitted to the planning board including the decision standards. Ideally, these will be available before the first planning board meeting and should be available through the town. Read for accuracy and what is said and not said. Compare the plan and decision standards to your town's comprehensive plan. If annexation is required for the project, request those details as well.

Show Up and Speak Out in an Organized Way

This sounds like common sense - and it is - but it matters. Register early to speak at planning board or board of commissioners meetings (usually through your town’s website). Coordinate with others so your group shows unity — for example, by wearing the same color shirt or another visible symbol. Work together to ensure all key talking points are covered without repeating the same message.

Focus on issues that help the board evaluate the proposal. While concerns such as the loss of farmland can feel overwhelming, they’re often not central to decisions about data center projects. Instead, emphasize topics that directly relate to zoning and community impact, such as:

• reasons not to rezone (for example, being surrounded by residential areas or spot zoning concerns)

• health and safety considerations

• noise (including generator use and constant hum)

• light pollution

• high water usage

• long-term environmental and economic effects

• consideration of cost to cure land once the data center is no longer in use

• energy demands and potential cost shifts to residents

• construction disruptions

• limited or misleading tax revenue projections from similar projects elsewhere

And most importantly: sign up to speak as soon as possible — spots fill quickly.

Sign up to speak as soon as you find out. Spots fill up.

Email Planning Board/Board of Commissioners

Email your planning board and board of commissioners to share not only your opposition, but also your concerns - and attach data to help make your point. For example, members of our oppositional group forwarded one article link each day, with a brief summary sentence or two. Others analyzed numbers relevant to the project's effect on on the the community, while some posed detailed questions regarding the project's impact on town resources. Keep your messages short and thank the commissioners for their time.

Be aware, some towns, such as Mooresville, do not consider form letters. If you are providing template emails first make sure that your town will treat them as meaningful input.

Get Signs Up, Ask for Volunteers, & Be Present

Your core group should designate someone to manage the purchase of signs and materials. Have opposition signs designed and ordered as early as possible, and consider additional items such as flags, stickers, and buttons. Delegate tasks among volunteers and maintain a presence at local events. Many groups also host educational meetings and, in some cases, establish a nonprofit organization to support their efforts.

You Will Need to Make Time

We have said that this battle was fought in the minutes and seconds between work and home life; and time stolen from family and obligations.

You will need a core group who will dedicate their time between... We are deeply grateful for everyone who supported our opposition efforts, and especially for those who went above and beyond: emailing board members, designing and ordering signs, placing signs in their yards, ordering stickers, sharing on social media, knocking on doors, conducting informal research, summarizing articles, digging into town records — and, honestly, putting Bloom’s Taxonomy to work by applying everything we learned.

All this is to say that you will need to make time. It is helpful to frame your time spent versus the decades to centuries long impact a hyperscale data center will have on your community.

Get Specific. Then More Specific.

Ask questions. If you’ve explored our website, you already have a sense of the issues we raised with our town board. The learning process often begins with, “What exactly is a data center?,” and gradually grows into deeper research about tax incentives, water and energy use, sewer capacity, environmental impact, and more. The information you find needs to be analyzed and applied.

We know that there are communities across the nation that have followed similar steps and recommendations, only to have their concerns ignored. Our hearts go out to those communities. While we recognize that we are not immune to future data center proposals, we are grateful that our first battle was successful. We wanted to share our experience in the hope that it might help even one other community.

Knock on Doors and Deliver Handouts

In order to get the word out that a data center is being built, contact neighbors by going door to door with a handout outlining essential details. The handout should have both your social media and website links so that people know where to find updates and get involved.

Contact Local Representatives and State Officials

Let your local and state representatives know where you stand on the data center, and provide reasons that are specific to your community. Be respectful and avoid politics.

Pay Attention to Board Meetings and Vote

If you attend a handful of meetings or watch them online, you we get a sense of which board members vote for and against projects. Vote accordingly.

You can also consider running for a seat on the board.

Other Useful Resources to Help You Organize Against Data Centers

The Data Center Resistance Guide 101 by The Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development is a checklist with the steps that can be taken to fight your local data center.

L.O.A.D (Learn, Organize, Act, and Defend)

The Cost of Data Centers to Our Communities and How to Fight Back by Media Justice is an organizer guide with general information regarding the effects of data centers.