When the proposal for a Google data center in Franklin, Indiana was withdrawn after local opposition, residents in the room reportedly cheered.
The project required rezoning more than 450 acres outside the Indianapolis suburb. Residents raised concerns about electricity demand, water usage, and the long-term impact on the surrounding community. Eventually, Google pulled the proposal.
Moments like this have become common as companies race to build the infrastructure behind artificial intelligence.
For years, data centers operated mostly out of sight. They were hidden in industrial parks or built in places where few people paid attention. But the AI boom is changing that. Facilities are getting larger, power demand is rising, and projects are starting to appear in communities that have never dealt with this kind of infrastructure before. Many fear they may not be equipped to do so.
The scale can be difficult to wrap your head around.
According to the International Energy Agency, a typical AI-focused data center can consume as much electricity as 100,000 households. For someone accustomed to thinking about electricity in terms of a monthly bill, that number feels enormous.
And that’s before you start talking about the rest of the infrastructure required to support it. The largest facilities under development will need even more power, along with significant water resources to keep computer hardware cool. In many cases, transmission lines and substations also need to expand to deliver that energy.
At the same time, the benefits of these projects are not always obvious to the people living nearby. Construction creates economic activity and tax revenue, but once the buildings are finished, data centers typically operate with relatively small permanent workforces.
So, when residents hear numbers about electricity use or water demand, the natural question becomes: what does the community get in return?
In many places, the conversation begins at zoning hearings, planning documents, and technical filings. Those materials make sense to engineers and regulators, but they can be difficult for the average resident to interpret. By the time communities start asking questions, residents are already feeling left behind, and the story surrounding a project is often already taking shape.
As the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure accelerates, scenes like the one in Franklin may become more common. Many communities are encountering projects of this scale for the first time and often through technical filings or zoning notices that offer little context. Success in this environment will depend as much on communication as construction. Communities want to understand what is being proposed, why it is happening in their town, and what it means for them. When those explanations arrive late or feel incomplete, skepticism often fills the space.
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