Nashville Mayor to Use Eminent Domain to Stop Data Center Near Zoo

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell plans to use eminent domain to stop a data center from moving in near the Nashville Zoo, reports WKRN-TV. In Tennessee, eminent domain allows the government the power to take property but under the Fifth Amendment, eminent domain must be for a “public use,” which traditionally means infrastructure projects like roads or bridges. The government must then pay the owner compensation.

The permits for an AI data center from DC Blox still await approval. There are 12 data centers in Davidson County, including nine operating facilities, one under construction and two more that are planned.

Doug Sloan, a representative for DC Blox, the company that has proposed one of the projects, pushed back on concerns about the site’s location. “It should be noted the zoo is surrounded not by some farm or pastoral setting, it’s in the middle of an industrial park adjacent to the third largest railyard in the nation,” Sloan said.