For the past five years, Terry Smith and her sister, Sherry, have called a home at the end of a cul-de-sac on Little Mountain Drive their own.
To Smith, their Virginia neighborhood has always felt like the kind of place people hope to find — welcoming, neighborly and, above all, peaceful. It was their small, hard-won piece of the American dream.
Now, that quiet way of life could be upended. Local officials are weighing plans for a 900-megawatt data center at Summit View Business Park, just a quarter-mile from Smith’s home in Rocky Mount, near Roanoke.
“It’s literally in my backyard,” Smith, 53, told the Daily Mail. “It’s in a quiet neighborhood. You never hear any kind of a disturbance.
“It’s unfathomable that these people aren’t considering the impact on the people in the immediate area.”
Smith says she and roughly 100 nearby households in her part of the community fear the proposed data center could devastate property values — and take a serious toll on residents’ quality of life.
“I just feel the Board of Supervisors is not considering the lifelong impact of the environment,” she said. “And I don’t feel like they’re considering the people who are affected immediately, like myself and the cul-de-sac.”
According to Smith, as many as 500 to 700 homes sit within a mile of the proposed development site, and she believes all of them would suffer lasting damage if the project moves forward, she told the Daily Mail.
Terry Smith and her sister, Sherry, have lived at the end of the cul-de-sac on Little Mountain Drive for the last five years. Now, their piece of paradise might become a hellscape if a new data center is built
Smith worries her home value and sanity will decreased dramatically if the center is built
‘I’m trapped!’ Smith said. ‘We’re all trapped. I cannot sell my house.’
If she were to try, she’d have to disclose that a data center that is connected to Crusoe AI, may be built practically in her backyard, which she said would be an impossible selling point.
‘Everybody here is stuck,’ she said. ‘If I was to try to get rid of my house, I’d have to give it away, basically. Me and my sister would lose thousands of dollars, so would everyone else in the neighborhood.
‘And where would we go? Because we wouldn’t have a down payment, we would take a loss on the house if we got rid of it.’
Smith, alongside many other residents, attended the Board of Supervisors meeting last month to express their complaints and concerns.
A representative of a local church also attended, where he begged officials to understand how the noise pollution from the data center would affect worship services, but more importantly, funerals.
‘Imagine trying to have a funeral service there,’ Smith said. ‘Half a mile from the data center and all the noise pollution. You wouldn’t be able to hear a preacher make remarks, you wouldn’t be able to hear family say graveside remarks about their loved one.’
Smith and her sister have only lived in the neighborhood for five years, after moving in May 2021. Since joining the neighborhood, she hasn’t seen a home go up for sale, as many make the town of 5,000 their forever home.
‘It’s literally in my backyard,’ Smith, 53, told the Daily Mail. Pictured is the area where the center is proposed to be built
Virginia has the most data centers in the country with 641
Even in the newer section of town, which has dense pine trees to help block out the noise, Smith isn’t positive it will be enough to maintain quality of life.
‘I completely understand the need for these facilities, but they need to be placed practically,’ she said.
Across the nation, citizens’ lives are increasingly becoming disrupted by these noisy facilities, but none more than Virginians, whose state houses the most data centers in the country.
Virginia has the highest number of data centers with 641, according to Pew Research. This is followed by Texas at 510 and California with 294. New York has 134.
Vermont has the least amount with three, according to Pew Research.
Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, who came into power in January, has taken steps to protect environmental issues, such as air quality, and introduced the first-of-its-kind statewide energy consumption tax on data centers.
‘Under Governor Spanberger’s leadership, Virginia has taken landmark action to make sure data centers pay their fair share for energy use, protect air quality, and prevent families from shouldering the cost of new energy infrastructure investments by data centers,’ her office told the Daily Mail.
‘Governor Spanberger was proud to propose and sign into law a first-of-its-kind, $1.2 billion statewide energy consumption tax on data centers and more than a dozen other bills focused on addressing Virginians’ concerns – including by enforcing stricter requirements on backup generators and giving local leaders more tools to assess the impacts of data centers.’
Governor Abigail Spanberger, who came into power in January has introduced a statewide energy consumption tax on data centers and told the Daily Mail she is taking a ‘different tune’ than her predecessor
Previous Governor Glenn Youngkin said he had wanted to make the state the data center capital of the world, despite resident pushback
Previous Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin had proposed making The Old Dominion State the data center capital of the world, but Spanberger’s office told the Daily Mail that she is ‘taking a different tune.’
‘While the previous administration encouraged data center growth without critical energy and environmental standards, Governor Spanberger will listen to Virginians and work to make sure data centers adhere to strict standards that protect families from higher electricity rates, strengthen grid reliability, and keep surrounding communities strong,’ the governor’s office said.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul was the first to put forth a statewide moratorium last month, which will block building new data centers over 50 megawatts in the Empire State for a year.
Earlier this year, California voted on its first-ever anti-data-center legislation in Monterey Park, near Los Angeles.
More than 85 percent of voters voted to prohibit the construction of new centers in the city in June.
Monterey Park became the second city in the nation to pass legislation against data centers.
Port Washington, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, was the first in April to vote to restrict any future data centers.
Wannie Park, founder of PADO AI, which helps data centers with energy management, told the Daily Mail that if AI companies want to continue to build facilities, they will have to start taking the human effect into account.
Wannie Park, founder of PADO AI, which helps data centers with energy management, told the Daily Mail that if AI companies want to continue to build facilities, they will have to start taking the human effect into account
‘As AI demand skyrockets, developers are realizing that ignoring local concerns around power grid strain, rising electricity costs, and resource allocation leads directly to regulatory roadblocks and public pushback,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘Moving forward, early community engagement, transparency, and demonstrating direct local benefits will be just as critical as securing land and power.’
And for residents who wish data centers be moved to desert areas far away from civilians, Park said this is a fever dream, as the facilities need access to a strong power grid, network connectivity and water sources to survive.
‘Developers can’t simply run away from populated areas – they have to learn to be better neighbors where the power and fiber already exist,’ he said.
