The City of Springfield held its first datacenter public engagement
session on Thursday, August 27. The second session is on Tuesday,
September 1 at the Library Center’s Hatch Auditorium.

Here’s my report on the first session, together with a list of
questions that need answers before the City makes any decisions.

Thursday’s event was very tightly controlled, limited, and
unsatisfying; only 183 people were allowed in the space, with many
others turned away. For Tuesday, the Hatch Auditorium has a
500-person capacity in one configuration (but they might choose a
more limiting arrangement).

On Thursday, the “subject matter experts” from city
staff were woefully unprepared, and unable to answer even the most
basic questions. Some were unable to speak audibly in the conditions;
my section was moderated by Jonathan Allen, who was often completely
inaudible. (Most city staff did not wear name tags, unlike the staff
at the Mayor’s listening session last week.)

Before the Thursday session, members of PSL shared a great
three-page handout with specific questions focusing on the six
subject areas the city chose for discussion. I’ve included many of
those questions below.

I’m sending this to the city council and staff today, in the
hope that some of them will be better prepared for Tuesday’s session.

Background on Data Centers & Springfield:

Like any city, Springfield has many locations that could considered “data
centers,” including:

• “Telecom” or “carrier”
  rooms or closets in many office buildings, or in adjacent
  accessory structures.
• “Enterprise” data centers for larger
  businesses like a hospital or university.
• “Colocation” or “wholesale”
  data centers, where an IT company hosts servers and connections for
  multiple businesses.

I’m aware of only one colocation data center in Springfield,
operated by Bluebird Fiber, inside the Springfield Underground
limestone caves in the northeast.

Any data center might be designed to provide redundancy to insure
steady power, internet connectivity, and cooling for computer servers
and telecom equipment. Each layer of redundancy adds complexity,
costs, and risks — and more types of equipment, including batteries
and generators, along with specializing monitoring and switching
equipment.

Nested inside any data center, there may be smaller data centers
(such a dedicated suite for an enterprise customer), and usually one
or more telecom/carrier suites or closets.

There are no special zoning requirements for a “data center,”
but the specific equipment and electrical and cooling configurations
would determine proper zoning and permit requirements. Any facility
that operates properly under existing permits and zoning might plan
upgrades that require new permits or zoning changes.

A “hyperscale” data center uses a much higher density of
equipment, power, and connectivity, in a uniform configuration, owned
and managed by a single provider. Because of this density, the same
space that could be used for a colocation data center, might require
ten times as much power and cooling capacity, while also generating
more noise and waste than a hyperscale datacenter.

Only one application has ever been submitted (now withdrawn) for a
“possible” hyperscale data center (at 2900 S. National
Avenue); it was ludicrously incomplete. At the end of this page are
PSL’s questions for Trent Overhue, who was the applicant for this
data center project. (The city now says that the only active
application for that property is for a veterinary clinic, not a data
center.)

Nevertheless, the city council adopted a 120-day moratorium on any
new data center applications, and scheduled these sessions to begin
planning for new regulations.

I honestly don’t expect any plausible proposal for a hyperscale
data center inside Springfield’s city limits, and I don’t think the
city expects this, either.

I expect that the city will adopt a set of regulations that appear
to make a hyperscale data center theoretically possible, but
practically impossible, except perhaps on the federal prison-hospital
property; I don’t know if the city could regulate such a use.

Springfield’s “public engagement sessions”:

City staff identified six “central questions,” which I
list below, but my own concerns don’t fit neatly into those six
topics.

1. Electricity: “How can the City and City Utilities
safeguard customers from potential increases in electric utility costs
as data centers consider locating here?” (City Utilities, Amy, CFO,
and Warren, VP Operations.)

• Amy emphasized that any hyperscale data center would need to pay
  “up front” for all infrastructure needed. That would include any
  capacity upgrades, transmission lines, and substations.
• The new facility would also pay a special “large load rate”
  which would be higher than existing users; they would also need to
  pay a minimum billing amount even if they did not actually use the
  amount of electricity expected. She assured us that there would be no
  “stranded costs” that might later impact other customers.
• Warren explained that before agreeing to provide services to such
  a facility, the customer would need to pay for a “system impact
  study” for City Utilities, and a separate study if the impact
  would affect the larger regional power grid.
• Q: Who exactly would perform “system impact studies,”
  and who would define the scope and sufficiency of the
  studies? Would the customer pay an independent consulting firm?
• Q: How might other hyperscale datacenters across the regional
  power grid have ripple effects on power availability in Springfield?
• Q: How would CU provide connectivity for a facility to multiple
  grids or substations?
• Q: How would CU deal with facilities having some independent power
  generation capacity (solar or wind, as well as generators)? Failure
  of auto shutoff for energy-to-grid in an outage?
• Q: Who would evaluate and plan for voltage, frequency, or
  oscillation risks? What monitoring (beyond the CU
  handoff/demarc) could be included in contract, and would CU face
  additional costs to implement?
• Q: Might infrastructure requirements require easements or eminent
  domain from neighbors, for transmission lines?
• Q: What deposits, bond, insurance would be required?
• Q: Compliance: What if usage exceeds expectation? If utility bills
  aren’t getting paid, how long would the facility need to go before
  shutoff? (How much might it cost CU, after deposit is depleted?)
• Q: Decommissioning: if the facility closes, what costs would CU
  face for de-commissioning, including removal of excess transmission
  lines?
• Q: Would CU accept guarantees from lenders or other third parties
  in lieu of other obligations?
• Q: [PSL] The North American Electric Reliability Corporation is
  writing new reliability standards specifically because computational
  loads create electrical behaviors that existing standards do not
  fully address. Why should Springfield authorize new computational
  loads before those standards are finalized? If it does, will the city
  require every project to meet the final NERC standards or stricter
  local equivalents?
• Q: [PSL] What maximum percentage of Springfield’s available
  generation capacity, peak demand or reserve margin is the city
  willing to dedicate to data centers?
• Q: [PSL] If a data center claims that its workload is flexible,
  will Springfield require it to curtail before residential customers
  are asked to conserve during peak conditions? How might the city or
  CU enforce such an agreement or requirement?

2. Water: “How can the City and CU protect community
water resources in regards to both quality and quantity?”
(City Utilities, Krista Shirt)

• “Springfield is drought-prone” while other nearby
  communities are not. The city may need to add capacity (pipelines) to
  access more water from sources we have rights to, as demand
  increases.
• It’s possible, but unknown, if a portion of a data center’s water
  needs could be met using treated-but-non-potable water; currently,
  that’s dumped into creeks. (Why isn’t it used for golf courses,
  parks, etc? Costs to add gray-water pipes?)
• It is unknown if CU has ever “shut off” water or sewer
  services to any business customer due to persistent violations. (When
  I asked the question, I expected to hear about a slaughterhouse or
  factory.) RSMo (Missouri Revised Statutes) Title XXV § 393.015,
  250.236.
• Q: What on-site water storage capacity is expected, allowed,
  recommended? Might the facility be asked to pay for a storage tank,
  on-site or nearby, that CU could draw from?
• Q: Might infrastructure requirements require easements or eminent
  domain from neighbors, for water pipes or other needs?
• Q: As construction and operations begin, how could other customers
  feel secure that surges in water use would not impact other
  customers? What specific surges might be impactful, such as
  flushing/clearing the cooling system or facility pipes?
• Q: What consequences, apart from cost, for water usage in excess
  of expectation or contract?
• Q: What consequences, beyond fines, for improper discharge
  practices, such as diesel fuel or other toxic material sent into
  sewer or on property?
• Q: [PSL] The Environmental Protection Sarvice documented a
  data-center cornmunity that eventually needed specialized treatment
  and an entirely new reuse utility because ordinary municipal
  wastewater treatment was not designed for the dissolved solids
  generated by cooling operations. What will Springfield do to prevent
  this waste from entering its sanitary sewe? Will every applicant have
  to publicly identify its cooling fluids, frestment chemicals,
  blowdown composition and disposal method before approval? How will CU
  monitor for changes?
• Q: If the facility transports water by truck (during construction
  or otherwise), how might that impact road infrastructure, sound,
  vibration, and safety nearby?
• Q: [PSL] Will an enforceable monitoring plan be in place so
  contamination can be detected before it migrates off-site? Who
  chooses and pays the independent hydrogeologist?
• Q: [PSL] When a developer says “closed loop,” will
  Springfield require a complete public water balance showing the water
  required for initial filling, commissioning and flushing, makeup
  water, evaporation, maintenance, emergency operations and fire
  suppression in gallons per day and gallons per year at full load?
• Q: [PSL] Berkeley Lab found more than a 10,000-fold variation in
  the water consumed by different data-center workloads. Will the city
  therefore refuse generic industry averages and require
  project-specific, independently verified water-consumption figures
  for the exact servers, cooling technology, and projected utilization
  proposed in Springfield?
• Q: [PSL] Because Springfield sits in karst terrain where the US
  Geological Survey says groundwater can move rapidly and surface water
  and groundwater substantially interact, will every data center be
  required to undergo an independent site-specific karst and
  hydrogeological investigation before zoning approval?
• Q: [PSL] If any data center proposes a private groundwater well,
  what pumping test, analysis, and nearby-well monitoring will
  Springfield require? Will residents have an enforceable remedy
  if/when their wells are affected?

3.Sound (Nuisance): “What can the City do to
ensure sound is not an issue as it relates to potential data
centers?” (Unknown city employee.)

• Sound mitigation would generally be required, including sound
  walls and setbacks, which vary based on topography. (Asked, he
  confirmed that trees or mounds/hills might also be used.)
• He was unable to articulate any specific guidance, sound wall
  height, or distances.
• The former Cox Medical location at 2900 N. National Ave. (here a
  preliminary application for a data center wa submitted but withdrawn)
  is across the street from an apartment complex; the most likely
  mitigation would be a sound wall.
• He noted that sound carries differently, depending on time of day,
  time of year, and other factors (humidity? ).
• The city could require specific monitoring of sound levels, and
  impose limits. It’s unclear how (or how well) those could be
  enforced.
• Q: What studies have reviewed specific sound issues identified
  with data centers? For facilities with backup generators? For
  facilities with large battery banks?
• Q: How would monitoring be done? Who would have access to the
  monitoring equipment and data, and how?
• Q: What exact decibels, frequencies and ranges would define the
  limits? Will this include all sound ranges and vibrations that are
  perceived by any people or animals, or which might affect plants or
  specific types of property? What about specific sounds (hum,
  beep-de-beep, warble, alarm)?
• Q: What enforceable limits would apply for sound generated during
  required monthly testing of generators? For emergency generator
  operation during a power outage?
• Q: [PSL] Will Springfield adopt enforceable numerical nighttime
  and daytime noise limits measured at residential receptors and
  property lines, or will developers merely be required to show that
  their project is “not expected to create a nuisance?
• Q: [PSL] Will the city require acoustic testing that captures
  tonal and low-frequency components using appropriate frequency-band
  analysis wherever transformers, chillers, fans or other equipment
  could produce persistent hum?
• Q: [PSL] Will every applicant have to fund an independent
  pre-construction acoustic baseline and a predictive model showing
  conditions at the nearest homes, apartments, hospitals, schools and
  other sensitive siles before the project can be approved?
• Q: [PSL] Will noise compliance be tested under the worst credible
  operating condition rather than under a convenient partial-load test
  conducted on a mild day?
• Q: [PSL] Will the city establish minimum setbacks from residences
  and other sensitive uses based on independent acoustic modeling
  before permitting, or is Springfield prepared to allow a developer to
  use walls and after-the-fact mitigation as an experiment on the
  people already living there?

4. Land Use & Facilities: “What can the City
do to ensure neighborhoods and green spaces can continue to
thrive when considering the development of data centers?”
(Justin Creighton, assistant director of planning; sometimes
inaudible)

Land use is about location, distance,buffer
zones (including what’s in those zones), and decommissioning.

• I asked: given the known issues, are there actually any plausible
  locations in Springfield for a hyperscale data center? He would not
  answer.
• I asked: what if Greene County were to consider a hyperscale data
  center just outside Springfield’s city limits? He said we’d try to
  negotiate an agreement.
• Q: [PSL] Will Springfield define a data center by what the
  facility actually does rather than by whatever label the applicant
  chooses, such as “data processing,” “research,”
  “office,” “telecommunications” or
  “high-performance computing”?
• Q: [PSL] Will the ordinance contain an explicit anti-evasion
  clause stating that a facility meeting Springfield’s data-center
  definition cannot obtain approval by being classified as an office,
  warehouse, research facility, telecommunications facility, utility
  use or accessory component of a mixed-use project?
• Q: [PSL] The city of Peculiar chose to remove data centers from
  its zoning code and its current officials report no regret; the
  community has continued adding residents and ordinary commercial
  development. What evidence does Springfield have that it must accept
  this particular land use to achieve economic growth?
• Q: [PSL] Will any significant increase in electrical demand,
  server floor area, cooling capacity, battery capacity or generator
  capacity trigger a new land-use review, so that a small project
  cannot win approval and then gradually transform into a materially
  different industrial facility?
• Q: [PSL] Will Springfield require affiliated parcels, modular
  buildings and phased expansions serving a common computing operation
  to be evaluated as one project for zoning and environmental purposes,
  rather than allowing a campus to be divided into pieces that
  individually remain below regulatory thresholds?

5. Safety: “What can the City require to ensure safe
operation of data centers and ancillary facilities?”
(Springfield Fire Department, Chief David Pennington)

• David gave a very confident presentation.
• I asked about the SFD’s experience with battery fires, such as
  Tesla vehicles and PowerWall batteries. He said they have had at
  least one Tesla fire, and some combustion of laptop computers.
  (Another attendee reported being told that an SFD person recently
  attended a special seminar on dealing with battery fires.)
• SFD’s jurisdiction includes the Springfield Undeground and the
  Bluebird Data Center there.
• I asked about the risks of battery fires, generator fires, and
  diesel fuel leakage; he was aware of these. They would deal with any
  facility’s special systems or materials, and will conduct annual
  inspections.
• I asked whether the SFD or SPD could request or require access to
  some of the cameras that are pervasive in this type of data center,
  such as the outdoor or corridor cameras? Wouldn’t that be helpful
  when they receive any reports? He did not believe they could require
  access.
• He mentioned that he’d reviewed a report on datacenters in
  Singapore, which has the highest density of data centers in the
  world.
• Q: Do you have the budget to deal with these risks?
• Q: [PSL] Before approval, will the Springfield Fire Department
  receive and independently review the exact battery chemistry and
  capacity, generator configuration, onsite fuel volume, cooling-fluid
  inventory, and emergency shutdown procedures for every proposed data
  center?
• Q: [PSL] Where lithium-ion or other substantial energy-storage
  systems are proposed, will Springfield require all applicable
  full-scale fire and thermal-runaway testing documentation and
  compliance with the relevant fire and energy-storage standards rather
  than relying only on equipment-level certifications?
• Q: [PSL] Will Springfield require a site-specific pre-incident
  plan and regular joint drills involving the operator, Fire
  Department. City Utilities and emergency management before the
  facility begins operating?
• Q: [PSL] Given Greene County’s documented karst vulnerability,
  what system will contain contaminated fire-suppression water,
  coolant, fuel or other runoff during an emergency so that an
  industrial accident cannot simply become a groundwater incident?
• Q: [PSL] Will Springfield require sufficient liability insurance,
  environmental impairment coverage, bonds or other financial assurance
  to pay for a worst-case fire, contamination event, emergency response
  and off-site property damage without leaving residents or the city
  pursuing a shell LLC after the fact?

6. Community Benefits: “What
areas/programs/services in our community would you like to see
benefit from additional revenue?” (Amanda)

• It was clear during this segment that the city has absolutely no
  concept of what might be sought from a hypothetical hyperscale data
  center, nor whether any new revenue might be available for such
  benefits.
• For some developments, a legally-binding Community Benefit
  Agreement is required.
• A CBA might require construction or payment for new community
  infrastructure such as roads or road improvements, among many other
  options. Some of these costs may come from anticipated sales
  tax revenue, employment taxes, property taxes, or utility taxes. In
  some cases, the CBA might include specific tax-revenue “assurances.”
• I mentioned that Missouri exempts nearly all equipment purchased
  for a data center from sales tax, and also does not tax any of
  the services used or sold by data centers to their customers.
• The CBA might also include specific monitoring and transparency
  provisions. (I noted “noise, discharge, economy, toxins,”
  but I don’t know if those were actually mentioned in the session.)
• One attendee mentioned that a relative in Indiana had received a
  financial because of fees or taxes generated by a large data center
  in that community.
• Someone asked whether a CBA might include remediation work to
  address actual or expected environmental impacts (I didn’t note the
  answer.)
• Q: Could the city require that union labor be used in any
  construction jobs? (She did not answer.)
• Q: [PSL] The Big Question: Springfield can prohibit new data
  centers, why should residents be required to accept any additional
  risk to our utility system, water, neighborhoods, or health unless
  the city can first demonstrate a public benefit large enough to
  justify those risks?

7. Financial & Solvency Concerns

• Enron. That’s the most important keyword when evaluating AI
  data centers.
• How many of the hyperscale data centers are owned, operated,
  controlled and contracted entirely through Enron-style style LLC &
  REIT shell companies, which could default on all environmental,
  power, water & community commitments?
• ​City staff should never sign any
  non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and the city must demand full
  public discloure of relevant information.
• ​The identity of each legal property owner;
  tenant, sub-tenant, lender, guarantor, insurer must be disclosed, and
  binding agreements obtained for each person or entity whose
  obligations are relied upon by the city.
• ​An agreement with “Amazon Missouri
  65801 LLC” is absolutely not an obligation of Amazon, and might
  not include Amazon as an owner, partner, customer, or affiliate.
• ​No transfers of responsibilities to
  new/different entities should be considered without bond & proof
  of adequate capital & insurance.​
• ​Who is promising what, to whom?
• ​Ignore claims about the identity of
  “customer(s).”
• ​All the big-tech companies (Facebook/Meta
  Apple Amazon Nvidia Google/Alphabet Microsoft Oracle OpenAI Anthropic
  etc.) are customers, investors, guarantors, and competitors of each
  other. Each buys, sell, and trade equipment and computing services
  through multiple exchange relationships which include thousands of
  other customers.
• ​The US government now also holds equity in
  some of these companies.
• ​What insurance & bond requirements,
  legal liability, hold-harmless demands? Who can enforce?What happens
  if facility fails to renew bond, insurance?
• ​​​What if the facility defaults on
  payment of utility bills, taxes, etc.?
• ​​What happens when someone attempts to
  shift ownership/control/liability to different entities?
• ​Ask about all infrastructure requirements
  for the intended use of the property, during planning + construction
  (phases) + startup + operation.
• ​Overhead wiring, rights-of-way and trenching
  for pipes and conduit, water supply and discharge, drainage, grading,
  permanent and temporary roadways for construction.
• ​​What services are required but
  conditional?
• ​​Anticipate shutdown/closure options
  (recycling, ewaste, clearing/cleanup, etc.)
• ​If a datacenter is not required to have the
  same parking and plumbing fixture counts as another use (industrial,
  commercial), then what happens if the property is later converted to
  a different use?
• ​​What specific monitoring and supervision
  is required?
• ​How can the city be assured that only
  qualified persons (such as licensed electricians) perform specialized
  work at all times?

8. Generators:

• ​These can be noisy and dirty.
• ​A backup generator must generally be tested
  at least once per month.
• ​A backup generator may run for many hours or
  days during a power emergency, while fuel is available.
• ​Trucks must replenish fuel, as needed.
• ​They require fuel (usually diesel, sometimes
  natural gas).
• ​A diesel fuel tank is itself a hazard.
• ​Diesel spills or leaks will occur.
• ​At some facilities, employees may load fuel
  from the tank into company or personal vehicles.
• ​In a crisis, diesel fuel may be sold, with
  or without proper permission.

9. Batteries:

• ​There are different types of batteries, used
  in many different configurations.
• ​Each type of battery has unique chemicals
  and properties, requiring different fire-suppression chemicals,
  techniques, and equipment. Using the wrong solution makes the problem
  worse.

10. Special Equipment:

• ​Automatic shutoff:
  if any on-site power source (batteries, generator, solar panels, or
  other), is also connected to the power circuit for
  utility power, there must be both an automatic disconnect (triggered
  when utility power fails) and a manual disconnect (accessible to
  utility staff). [Please don’t electrocute the utility worker who’s
  working on that line.]
• ​Automatic transfer switch:
  if utility power fails, this switches on power from the local
  batteries, and may also triggers the startup sequence for generators.

11. Facility Access:

• ​Most data centers have fewer employers than
  most other industrial or commercial properties of the same size.
  Small data centers might not be staffed 24/7.
• ​But the equipment in a data center requires
  maintenance.
• ​Servers, hard disk drives, RAM memory
  and GPU chips used in AI computers will fail and need replacement,
  often by outside contractors.
• ​This means road traffic to physically access
  the facility, triggering safety concerns. (Some contractors may
  behave badly.)

12. About Mark J. Welch:

Mark J. Welch is a former journalist, attorney,
teacher, and data center salesperson. From 2011-2021, Mark worked for
Hurricane Electric, which converted two former factories in Fremont,
California into colocation data centers. HE is also one of the
world’s largest global internet bandwidth providers, selling
connectivity globally at 320 major exchange points and at telecom
data center in more than 200 cities worldwide.

13. PSL’s questions for Trent Overhue, who submitted
the application for a 10-megawatt data center at 2900 S. National
Avenue:

• Q: [PSL] If Overhue and city planners have been working together
  for months while hiding this from the public until the Sunshine Law
  was utilized, why should we trust developers or city officials to be
  forthcoming now about the impact of data centers?
• Q: [PSL] You said that we have to compete with China. Admittedly,
  China is way ahead of us on technology in general. But they have four
  times the population and the US has seven times as many data centers
  as they do. They also put them in deserts away from populations and
  where it is more expensive to bring water in. They do this to protect
  the quality of life from their citizens. Shouldn’t we learn to be
  more judicious and efficient, like the Chinese, rather than simply
  build more data centers that we don’t need?
• Q: [PSL] City staff say they were discussing data centers for
  months and the South National concept came through a pre-application
  process before most nearby residents knew it was being considered.
  Will you consent today to the public release of every
  non-trade-secret site plan, load estimate, water estimate, and other
  technical document you or your companies provided to Springfield or
  City Utilities concerning 2900 S. National? If not, what exactly
  should remain secret from the people who live around it?
• Q: [PSL] What is your exact ownership, management or financial
  relationship to NSI A1 LLC. NSI Investments and each Lumon entity
  associated with the Marshfield or Springfield concepts? Will you
  publicly identify the beneficial owners and controlling parties so
  residents know who would ultimately own, operate and profit from
  these facilities?
• Q: [PSL] How many operational data centers have you and the
  specific engineering and operating team responsible successfully
  built and operated, for how many years? Can the public inspect their
  safety and compliance records?
• Q: [PSL] Will you publish stamped final plans specifying the exact
  building area, maximum megawatt load, cooling-fluid chemistry, annual
  water consumption, battery capacity and generator capacity instead of
  asking residents to reconcile changing public descriptions
  themselves?
• Q: [PSL] You have said NDAs can make early public disclosure
  difficult. Who, specifically, is bound by an NDA connected to the
  Marshfield project or any Springfield dala-center concept, what
  categories of information are being withheld? Will you release any
  governmental body, public utility or public official from contractual
  confidentiality so they can answer residents fully?
• Q: [PSL] For 2900 S. National you have described closed-loop
  cooling that would not rely on ordinary city water consumption. What
  is the exact initial source of the cooling water, how many gallons
  are needed to fill and commission the system, what fluid and
  additives circulate through it, what are the annual makeup losses,
  and what happens to that fluid when equipment is fushed, serviced or
  replaced?
• Q: [PSL] There are community reports that fire or thermal
  incidents have occurred at the Marshfield construction site. Have
  there been any fires, smoke events, battery events, electrical
  faults, overheating incidents or fire-department responses at the
  Marshfield site?How many, on what dates, what caused them, and will
  you release the incident reports?
• Q: [PSL] Your Marshfield project has been publicly described as
  roughly 10 MW with up to about 15 permanent jobs. Why should a
  community dedicate that much electrical capacity and accept the
  associated land-use, safety and infrastructure obligations for that
  level of permanent employment? Why should Springfield accept those
  risks at all when it has the option to say no?

14. Links:

• Data Centers – analysis by Mark J. Welch
  (August 15,
  2026):
  https://www.markwelchblog.com/2026/08/15/data-centers-analysis-by-mark-j-welch-aug-2026/
• Hurricane Electric: https://pop.he.net/
• Enron: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_scandal
• Bluebird Data Center:
  https://www.datacenters.com/bluebird-bluebird-underground
• “Why Big Tech’s AI Spending Is $3 Trillion
  Higher Than It Seems: Massive spending commitments for data-center
  leases and chips aren’t shown on companies’ balance sheets” (Wall
  Street Journal, Aug. 16, 2026)
  https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/why-big-techs-ai-spending-is-3-trillion-higher-than-it-seems-e1067bb2

15. Pending data center
legislation: https://www.techpolicy.press/data-center-discontent-drives-state-legislation-surge/

16. “Local Guidelines for Data Center
Development” (Urban Land
Institute Data Center Product Council; Hannah
Miet) https://knowledge.uli.org/-/media/files/research-reports/2024/uli-data-center-whitepaper_hm_2024-11-12_final-final-round.pdf

• ​​​p.7-8: Reasonable explanation of the
  difference between data center types (corporate/enterprise,
  telecom/carrier, colocation/retail/wholesale, and hyperscale/AI).
• ​​​p.15: “Power purchase agreements
  (PPAs): long-term contracts with renewable energy providers (the
  sellers) to purchase electricity from specific wind or solar farms.”
• ​​​p.17 and 21: Sound mitigation
• ​​​p.19: “Regulations developed for
  office or warehouse uses often impose excessive parking and plumbing
  fixture counts on data centers, which necessitate variances and
  complicate the planning process.” Yes,
  but: what if the property is
  later converted to a different use?
• ​​​p.19: Fire Department considerations:
  Battery fires? Diesel fuel storage; generators.
• ​​​p.26: Glossary of terms.

17. “AI Infrastructure Community
Evaluation Framework (AICEF)”
(appears to be a crude AI-generated template; the checklist on page
12 might be
useful).
https://www.lindenwood.edu/files/future-caucus/ai-community-evaluation-aicef3.pdf