Local officials were talking with a prospective data center developer in Jones County months before any formal application surfaced.
That early, quiet engagement matters because it shapes power, land, and water planning long before the public can weigh in.
For AI workloads, this likely signals another power‑hungry facility chasing cheap land and electricity in a semi‑rural area, with limited existing grid and cooling capacity.
Community resistance is already organized, which can slow timelines, drive up costs, and push operators toward stricter noise, traffic, and resource‑use constraints.
Vendors and hyperscalers eyeing this region should assume longer entitlement cycles, more transparency requirements, and tighter environmental scrutiny.
For operators, the operational reality is that early, nonpublic discussions with counties are now a reputational risk, not just a zoning tactic.
The underlying reporting is worth a read for anyone modeling AI data center site risk and community pushback dynamics.
Source: Emails show Jones County data center discussion began months before official application
