Getting a data center approved used to be simple: a meeting with the planning commissioner to understand current zoning, permit approvals at a sleepy public hearing, and the project moved forward. Nobody outside the industry knew what a data center was or cared about what went on inside one.

That world is gone. Given the massive shift in attitudes about data centers, the approach that worked for decades clearly no longer holds. At Data Center World Power, held in Dallas last month, a panel featuring Rajiv Vohra of Thor Equities, Diane Sullivan of Hecate Energy, Matt Bailey of Calvert Street Group, and Rob Cleveland of Grow NELA discussed what does work. They offered real-world best practices for earning community support and trust.

In the past, many data center projects followed a siting strategy known as “decide, announce, defend:” quietly decide on the site, announce the plan, then defend it at the hearing if anyone raised concerns. Today’s environment calls for an “engage, deliberate, decide” approach. This model involves including the community in discussion early, working through concerns together, then making the call if this is the right site for a data center. It treats community support as something data center operators earn, and the level of community support determines whether the project is viable to consider. The sooner a company knows whether it can earn a community’s trust, the better.

Here are four best practices for earning community trust and support that stood out from the panel discussion.

Show Up Way Before the Zoning Board Hearing

Staying under the radar used to be the safe play. Sullivan called that approach the biggest mistake a developer can make right now. If a community first hears about a project through a rezoning notice, or a rumor, they’re instantly suspicious.

Sullivan is chief development officer at Hecate Energy, which develops and runs utility-scale renewable and energy storage projects, including supporting data center power needs.

"We want to find out if we have community acceptance before we have land and before we have power," she said. That means exploring early whether there's appetite for a project, and whether there are local leaders who will stand up for it.

A local champion helps, since a neighbor's word carries credibility. But a champion only opens the door. Support has to come from the community as a whole, and it's far easier to earn before anyone has picked a side.

Cleveland, who leads economic development in Northeast Louisiana, where Meta has one of its marquee data center projects, put the strategy even more bluntly: Data center developers should start their site search by identifying the communities that have made clear they’re open to data center development.

Stop Pitching, Start Listening

For many residents, the first real conversation about a data center happens at a public hearing. By then the plan is set, and each speaker gets a few minutes at the microphone to argue for or against it. It's a format built for taking positions and stoking emotions, not listening, learning, and sharing ideas.

Sullivan described a different setting Hecate tries to create—working groups that bring supporters and opponents to the same table. Organizing these working groups has produced good results. One reason is that many people simply want to know that they’ve been heard and see that the data center developer is listening. In that setting, concerns come up while there's still time to address them, and neighbors who disagree hear from each other, not just from the developer. People have room to change their minds.

The conversation shouldn’t end at government approval or groundbreaking, either. What a community wants can shift over the life of a project, so maintaining an ongoing working group helps the operator hear it first, before tensions build.

Take Concerns Seriously, Then Offer Facts

Listening brings concerns to the surface. How a project answers them decides whether they stick. Cleveland said misinformation comes in two flavors: untrue and "used to be true."

Water usage is a good example. The industry used to choose evaporative cooling as the default, said Vohra, a data center investor at Thor Equities Group who spent nine years at Google doing data center development, including as global head of data center economic development.

Now the industry’s moving quickly to closed-loop water systems, which fill a cooling system once and then recirculate that water. Water concerns can also vary by location, since water risks are more severe in some regions than others. So, data center water usage is certainly a reasonable concern, but it’s one with a very clear technology answer today.

It helps to provide answers that people can picture. Cleveland described a site study that compared a proposed data center with the land's former use, a rice field. Over time, the rice field used more water than the data center would. Vohra offered another that's closer to home for most towns: golf courses use more water than data centers nationwide. Comparisons like these illustrate a data center against something the community already knows and accepts.

Sullivan also encourages data center teams not to shy away from giving technical answers, including being open about what happens inside the building. People can handle the details. What they don't trust is silence.

Offer Clear and Concrete Benefits a Data Center Will Bring

In Richland Parish in northeast Louisiana, teachers got a one-year bonus of about $50,000, up from $10,000 the year before, after Meta began construction on its Hyperion Data Center there. The money for teacher bonuses came from a surge in local sales tax resulting from the construction, and the increased tax revenue is expected to last a few years.

The larger point is that communities increasingly expect data centers to spell out the concrete benefits they’ll get, and not just a general promise of an increased tax base and X number of jobs. Sullivan said it's already happening, with community benefit agreements that used to be simple now spelling out multiple benefits across a region that a developer can point to. If a data center can help pay for a new school, a STEM program, or a ball field, residents need to connect it to the project.

Benefits are how a project shows it's holding up its end of the relationship, but only if people can see them.

Where Community Engagement Goes Next

Bailey, the chief operating officer of Calvert Street Group, advises data center developers to build a playbook so that earning support becomes something a team does every time, not something it improvises if pushback starts. Calvert Street Group provides consulting on land use projects ranging from sports stadiums and retail developments to data centers and solar farms.

In today’s new environment, if a community has a good or bad experience with a data center project, the results don't stay local. Whether it’s a data center that fuels teacher bonuses or one that spring a rezoning notice on a town, both shape how the country sees data centers. That's why Sullivan calls for the industry to come together on how it communicates with communities.

Have something to say on data center community engagement? Submit a speaking proposal for Data Center World 2027, May 24 to 27 in Nashville. We have one of our five content tracks dedicated to Community Engagement & Public Policy. The call for proposals is open through October 9. If your team has earned a community's support, share with your peers how you did it.