Lowndes County residents demand transparency in hyperscale data center development

This article was originally published by Alabama Reflector.

HAYNEVILLE — At least 150 Lowndes County residents gathered at the local courthouse Monday evening to demand transparency from the county commission about the development of one of Alabama’s largest planned data centers.

One resident, John Urquhart, said in an interview before the regularly scheduled County Commission meeting that the development, known as Project Red Clay, is “depressing.” He lives on 230 acres adjacent to the planned location of the data center. 

“It’s depressing to think we put our life savings into buying all this, and getting it together, and they move in, and they destroy it,” he said.

Urquhart attended the meeting with many of his peers through a resident-organized group called Protect Lowndes County to protest the planned 800-acre data center. 

About 350 people signed the group’s petition demanding more transparency from the commission. Urquhart was chosen to read the petition to the commissioners during the meeting.

The facility has requested 1,500 megawatts of energy capacity from Alabama Power – enough to power roughly one million homes. The entire state of Alabama has about 2 million households and about 2.4 million housing units.

“I’m not against new technologies. I mean it’s made all of our lives better,” Urquhart said. “There are just so many negatives to it. We’ve asked for answers since April. Our commissioners have given us absolutely nothing.”

Data centers have emerged as a top issue for Alabamians ahead of the midterm elections, and they have become a partisan issue. Democrats at the top of Alabama’s ticket are calling for a one-year moratorium on the facilities due to local and expert concern. Republicans have tended to tout the facilities for economic development possibilities. 

The petition asked the commissioners to comply with an open records request submitted on July 27 seeking documentation on the project. It also demanded a list of the entities involved in the project, disclosure of infrastructure impacts and the creation of an accessible online dashboard to share up-to-date information on the project for the public. 

Members of the commission said Monday they did not have any information to share with the public. 

In a statement Monday evening, the developers of Project Red Clay said it created a separate LLC, Sandstone Cliffs DevCo, to operate the beginning phases of the project. Cloverleaf owns the LLC and is responsible for it, the statement said. 

The statement also said the company would not reveal the operator of the large-scale data center because an agreement has not been finalized. The project is estimated to cost at least $1.5 billion in the development stage, according to the statement.

Ryan Anderson, a staff attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), also spoke at the meeting. 

“I understand the county staff are busy and that records requests take time to process, but I do want to remind the commission of the legal obligations that apply here, because a project of this scale deserves to be conducted in full view of the public,” she said.

In the middle of her prepared remarks about the public records request, Commissioner Charlie King, Jr., repeatedly struck his gavel, signalling Anderson was out of time. 

As Anderson returned to her seat, Commissioner Dickson Farrior, the vice chair, motioned for King to allow her to finish her prepared remarks. The commission approved the motion, and Anderson returned with applause and cheers from the audience.

“Transparency isn’t a courtesy the commission extends to the public. It’s the law, and it’s the foundation of the public’s trust and how this decision gets made,” she said.

Anderson said in a phone interview on Monday afternoon prior to the meeting that the documents the records request would allow them to see would give an unbiased view of the resources Project Red Clay will need.

“Understanding the scope of the impacts can really only be done if you can look at these factual documents, from an unbiased source. Right now, all that we have is a website run by the developer,” Anderson said. “Of course, they’re going to make it seem like all daisies and roses, but residents really deserve to have an unbiased source of information.”

Part of the issue, Anderson said, is that Cloverleaf was able to buy the land and start developing the data center in Lowndes County because the county lacks planning or zoning authority. That is the case for most counties in the state.

The Association of County Commissions of Alabama unanimously passed a resolution at its annual meeting last week supporting a comprehensive approach to land use authorization. 

“Granting planning and zoning authority for a single industry raises practical and constitutional concerns,” said ACCA Executive Director Sonny Brasfield in a statement. “Rather than pursuing an industry-specific approach, counties believe a broader conversation is needed about how county governments can effectively support strategic and productive growth in Alabama’s unincorporated areas.”

Lowndes County Commissioner Robert Harris put forward a resolution at the end of the meeting Monday to support legislation that would allow the county to have planning and zoning authority. The resolution passed unanimously. 

“The people who are showing up here tonight and at the other meeting, if they get behind it as if they’re behind that on stopping this particular company from coming, then I think it may be in favor of happening,” Harris said in an interview after the meeting. “If there’s no support behind it, then you’re gonna get the same thing.” 

Negatha Holt, another resident who spoke during the meeting, addressed residents more than the commission, and encouraged those living in Lowndes County to resist apathy. 

“Since May of 2024, communities across this country have blocked or delayed over many $98 billion dollars in data center projects,” she said. “The power of the people is greater than the people in power.”