How Data Centers Avoid Local Planning

Stay on top of host city road conditions with TomTom’s world championship traffic dashboard: tomtom.com/citybeautiful And to get your hands on the data, try TomTom’s Move portal — free for 30 days.TomTom transportation dashboard: https://www.tomtom.com/traffic-index/world-championship/?utm_source=influencer-citybeautiful&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=influencer-citybeautiful-campaign&utm_content=influencer-citybeautiful-campaign-test1Tech companies are building hundreds of massive data centers in communities around the US. Planners have to grapple with the impacts (power, water, noise) those data centers cause. How do they do it? And should they stop it?# Resources mentioned in this video- This video was inspired by a great article in the Journal of the American Planning Association by Justin Kollar Planning Under Preemption: State Power and Local Authority in the AI Data Center Era: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01944363.2026.2618221- Pew Research: Most New Data Centers in the US Are Coming to Rural Areas: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/13/most-new-data-centers-in-the-us-are-coming-to-rural-areas/#- Brookings: AI Data Centers and Water: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/ai-data-centers-and-water/#:~:text=A typical data center uses,of up to 50%2C000 residents- Lincoln Institute: Water Impacts and Data Centers: https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/land-lines-magazine/articles/land-water-impacts-data-centers/- The Guardian: Monterey Park, California Data Center Ban: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/03/california-monterey-park-datacenters-ban- Mountain State Spotlight: Lawmakers Strip Local Authorities of Data Centers: https://mountainstatespotlight.org/2025/08/03/lawmakers-strip-local-authority-data-centers/Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Nebula Studios.Written by Dave Amos.Select images and video from Getty Images.Black Lives Matter.Trans rights.No AI.