Leopards, tigers and AI data, oh my! Nashville Zoo tries to halt proposed data center

The Nashville Zoo is opposing a proposed 69,000-square-foot data center from DC BLOX that would be built 50 yards from animal enclosures, citing noise concerns that could disrupt breeding of vulnerable species like clouded leopards. The zoo launched an online petition that has garnered over 180,000 signatures, while a metropolitan council member has filed a zoning appeal and plans to propose a data-center moratorium. The conflict reflects a broader national backlash against AI data centers, with communities increasingly challenging their placement and environmental impact.

A nationwide backlash against artificial intelligence data centers has a new ally: the leopards of the Nashville Zoo. The zoo, a popular destination in Tennessee’s capital city, is trying to block a proposed 69,000-square-foot data center from being built next door. The zoo says that the facility would be about 50 yards from some of its animals and that the noise could disturb its residents, including a leap of leopards that hail originally from Southeast Asia. “We are vehemently opposed to having a data center so close to animals,” said Rick Schwartz, the Nashville Zoo’s president and CEO, in a phone interview Friday. The zoo this week launched an online petition against the data center that, as of Friday, had more than 180,000 signatures and 25,000 shares on Facebook. The petition asks city leaders to intervene to protect “one of the most fragile and rare collections of animals in the country.” Schwartz said he’s especially worried about noises from the data center affecting the breeding of clouded leopards https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2025/11/03/watch-clouded-leopard-cubs-play-in-leaves-at-nashville-zoo/86992340007/ , a vulnerable species that the zoo is working to conserve https://www.nashvillezoo.org/our-blog/posts/nashville-zoo-celebrates-50th-clouded-leopard-birth . Courtney Johnston, a member of the metropolitan council whose district includes the zoo, said she was being inundated by concerned residents. She said she had filed a zoning appeal and would ask the council to vote Tuesday on a data-center moratorium. “I’m getting phone calls. I’m getting emails. All of my social media. Text messages. The community is speaking,” she said. It’s the latest example of data centers getting pushback in communities nationwide, as neighbors say they don’t want to live near them or object more broadly to the direction of the tech and AI industries. There’s been a bipartisan push https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/reining-data-centers-sparks-rare-bipartisanship-statehouses-rcna262990 for regulation, as well as lawsuits https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/utah-residents-sue-officials-kevin-oleary-data-center-plan-rcna348720 and opposition to tax breaks https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2028-election/illinois-gov-jb-pritzker-suspend-tax-breaks-offered-data-centers-rcna348537 . The Nashville project is from DC BLOX, an Atlanta-based company that specializes in building and operating data centers as a service to “hyperscalers, enterprises, communications providers, and technology companies,” according to its website https://www.dcblox.com/ . “DC BLOX understands and appreciates the concerns that have been raised about our newly proposed data center in Nashville near the zoo,” the company said in a statement. “We look forward to working with local officials, community members, and the Nashville Zoo to minimize local impacts and to assure that there will be no health risks to residents or animals,” it said. A spokesperson Friday said he did not immediately know what the data center would be used for or whether AI companies would be among the customers for the site. The zoo says it had 1.4 million visitors last year. Located on a former slave plantation https://www.nashvillezoo.org/our-blog/posts/cemetery-dedication-set about six miles southeast of downtown, it has more than 3,700 animals representing more than 350 species on 188 acres. It’s managed by a private nonprofit organization on city-owned land. Johnston said she did not believe DC BLOX had done much outreach prior to the project becoming public. She said the metropolitan government was also caught off-guard and did not yet have zoning rules or building regulations specific to data centers. “In my opinion, they’ve operated in bad faith, and they’re trying to rush something that they believe Nashville can’t regulate at the moment,” she said. Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell has also said he has hesitations but has stopped short of outright opposing the project. “We have a lot of concerns about the project and have our legal department looking into it,” he told reporters Friday in a briefing, according to a transcript provided by his office. Time may be of the essence. The mayor’s office said that the developers had applied for site permits even before DC BLOX closed on its purchase of the property, trying to lock in building rights for the project, and Schwartz said that the purchase was scheduled to close as soon as Monday. DC BLOX said its proposed data center would “not be an AI factory placing a burden on local resources and is proposed on a site that had previously operated a data center.” “From our past projects, as well as the proposed Nashville facility, we commit to using closed-loop or waterless cooling designs to minimize ongoing water use. We commit to the local utility to pay for all power used as well as any new energy infrastructure required to support our project. And we commit to maintaining and testing noise levels to measurable and acceptable levels and adhering to all federal and local environmental requirements,” the company said. The zoo’s petition cites several objections to data centers that have been hotly debated nationwide, including their impact on electricity https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/phoenix-is-a-data-center-meccaand-test-case-for-how-to-pay-for-ais-power-needs-c671056f and water resources https://www.wired.com/story/data-center-operators-fix-water-use-problems/ . Schwartz described several concerns about how the data center could potentially affect the zoo’s animals. He said he worries about excessive artificial light hurting their psychological well-beings and about electrical hums and mechanical noises interfering with breeding. “I understand the data center may be necessary because of the growth of Nashville. There are better areas to do it instead of next to a zoo and children,” he said.