09/02/2026
Hear Hear!
ENOUGH OPEN HOUSES. IT IS TIME FOR A MORATORIUM.
Have you noticed how many open houses, town halls, Zoom calls, invitation-only meetings, polished presentations, glossy mailers, scripted talking points, sponsored advertisements, PR campaigns, paid representatives, consultants, lobbyists, economic projections and promises of jobs and tax revenue it takes to sell these projects?
At some point, the campaign itself becomes the warning.
When an industry needs this much persuasion to overcome this much resistance, the answer is not another carefully managed sales pitch. It is to stop, step back and ask why communities across America keep saying no.
In March, Gallup found that 71% of Americans opposed an AI data center in their local area. By August, another national poll found opposition at 75%, with more than six in ten registered voters strongly opposed. These were different surveys, but they point in the same unmistakable direction: public opposition is not fading. It is growing.
Gallup: https://news.gallup.com/poll/709772/americans-oppose-data-centers-area.aspx
That does not mean Americans are anti-technology. It means they understand that technological progress does not require surrendering agricultural, rural or residential land to industrial development.
And we no longer have the excuse of innocence. Loudoun and Prince William have already shown us what happens when approvals accumulate, industrial boundaries expand and yesterday’s exception becomes tomorrow’s precedent. Those counties are not predictions. They are evidence. We have seen what follows the first data center, and we cannot honestly pretend we do not know where this road leads.
Most of the people selling these projects will never live beside them. They will not hear the generators, see the transmission lines, face the increased demands on water and electricity or watch the rural landscape disappear. Their job is to secure approval and move on. The community is left behind to live with everything they sold.
The public is not confused. We are not uninformed. We do not need another open house designed to convince us that the consequences will somehow be less serious than the evidence already shows.
We need a real moratorium on new data center applications, rezonings and Comprehensive Plan amendments. That means no new applications, no rezoning, no changing the plan and no expedited approvals until independent cumulative impact studies examine electricity, water, land, utility rates, emergency services, infrastructure costs and surrounding communities, with enforceable protections ensuring that residents are not left paying the bills.
This is bigger than any politician’s careless or insulting remarks. When development moves this quickly, consumes this much and faces resistance this widespread, responsible leadership does not ridicule the public or accelerate approvals.
It applies the brakes.
Enough presentations. Enough promises. Enough public relations. Put the applications down. Stop changing the plans. Study the cumulative consequences of what has already been approved. Then let communities decide how much is enough and where, if anywhere, additional facilities belong.
An open house is not public consent. A presentation is not public participation. And a sales pitch is not responsible planning.
