Can Data Centers Be Good Neighbors?
Helping communities make better decisions about data center development.
Data Center Neighbor is an independent initiative using research, evidence and practical tools to help communities understand project transparency, infrastructure risk, community value and long-term accountability, especially early, when consequential choices can still be shaped.
Why This Matters
More than 3,000 data centers are operating nationwide and more than 1,500 are in development. Two-thirds of planned facilities are in rural areas, a significant shift from the existing market. Data centers could account for 9.5% to 15.3% of U.S. electricity use by 2030.
Yet the decisions associated with this growth are often made through separate processes. Local governments evaluate land use and economic development. Utilities plan for electricity demand. Regulators consider transmission infrastructure. Other institutions oversee environmental permitting, water, transportation and public investment.
Communities experience the cumulative outcomes of these decisions together.
THE GOOD NEIGHBOR FRAMEWORK
What Makes a Data Center a Good Neighbor?
TRANSPARENCY
Access to timely, meaningful information
Communities should know who owns, controls, operates and uses a project, how credible its load assumptions are and what infrastructure it requires.
COMMUNITY VALUE
Benefits, costs & shared value
Tax revenue, jobs and community investment should be considered alongside infrastructure costs, mitigation, ratepayer risk and how benefits and burdens are distributed.
RISK MITIGATION
Identify, compare and reduce impacts
Foreseeable impacts should be identified early, credible alternatives compared and the actual constraints driving decisions made clear.
COMMUNITY VOICE & ACCOUNTABILITY
Influence while choices remain open
Communities should have meaningful influence while consequential choices can still be shaped, understand who controls each decision and know how commitments will be enforced over time.
FROM FRAMEWORK TO ACTION
A Community-Side Model for Data Center Development
The Good Neighbor Framework provides a simple structure for thinking about community outcomes: transparency, risk mitigation, community value and community voice and accountability.
Our concept note takes the next step. It translates those dimensions into a more operational model for the decisions communities face across the data center lifecycle, from understanding ownership and load credibility to evaluating infrastructure alternatives, cost responsibility, public value and long-term accountability.
The greatest opportunity to shape outcomes is often early, before major land-use, infrastructure and public-investment commitments narrow the available choices.
ABOUT US
Data Center Neighbor is an independent initiative developing research, evidence and practical tools to help communities make better decisions about data center development.
Based in Loudoun County, Virginia, DCN draws on lessons from one of the world’s most established data center markets while learning from communities confronting development at earlier stages.
The goal is not to prescribe whether communities should accept or reject data center development. It is to establish clearer expectations for how communities can evaluate and shape development when they choose to host it.
Data Center Neighbor is developed and incubated by Bellwether Advisory, LLC.
FROM ONE DATA CENTER NEIGHBOR
Casey J. Bell is a Data Center Neighbor living in Sterling, Virginia, less than three miles from the heart of Data Center Alley in Ashburn. She is also an economic development and impact measurement practitioner with nearly two decades of experience working at the intersection of community development, workforce development, utilities, energy and economic mobility.
Over her career, Casey has led strategy, impact measurement and program development efforts for nonprofit organizations, financial institutions and mission-driven enterprises. Her work has included designing outcome measurement frameworks, evaluating community investments, supporting workforce and small business initiatives and helping organizations translate complex systems into practical decision-making tools.
Contact Us & Join the Conversation
Working Through Data Center Growth?
Whether your community is considering its first major project, experiencing rapid growth or managing an established data center market, we are interested in how these decisions are playing out on the ground.
Have an idea, critique, case example or opportunity to collaborate? Send us a note.