Data-center Power + Permission.
Cited-review queue targeting a delivery window confirmed at acceptance of the completed property submission. Complex or thin-record sites can take longer.
Hyperscale site selection is no longer just a zoning read. RealClear reads the records that change approval risk: ordinance text, hearing minutes, utility filings, water disclosures, opposition coalitions, and comparable outcomes. The deliverable is a cited entitlement site memo through a queue targeting a delivery window confirmed at acceptance of the completed property submission. Complex or thin-record sites can take longer.
Every approved, submitted property enters the cited-review queue, which targets a delivery window confirmed at acceptance of the completed property submission. Complex or thin-record sites can take longer. Existing jurisdiction records only make the starting record richer; they never decide whether a property can be submitted.
Market context
In the first quarter of 2026 alone, Data Center Watch documented at least 75 projects worth approximately $130B blocked or delayed by local opposition. The records that matter now appear before the hearing: moratorium bills, water disclosures, utility filings, noise standards, and organized public-comment records.
Sources: Data Center Watch, Q1 2026 report · municipal records · utility filings
Power + Permission
RealClear separates what the public record can support from what a utility must confirm. Transmission adjacency, nearby substations, and historical load do not equal available power. The site memo names the evidence, the gap, and the next utility question before the team spends into the wrong assumption.
Who this is for
Hyperscale operators, colo platforms, data-center REITs, power-intensive users, and institutional land teams evaluating a candidate property. A decision gate before deep diligence, not a replacement for in-house development, entitlement, legal, power, engineering, environmental, or construction expertise.
On acceptance
Cited site memo
Key
Claims linked to records
Every
Submitted property reviewed
Delivery window confirmed when the completed property submission is accepted. Complex or thin-record sites may require more research.
Google Indianapolis. 2 out of 100. Withdrawn six months later.
This is what a RealClear cited site memo looks like for a real data-center site. Every layer cited. Every material source record shown. The kind of site memo that survives the IC, withstands outside counsel review, and clears underwriting. After approved access and submission, the review queue targets a delivery window confirmed at acceptance of the completed property submission. Complex or thin-record sites can take longer.
- ZoningD-A → C-S rezoning required. FF/FW flood overlay. Class-2 not by-right.
- PathwayHearing examiner → MDC → Council call-down. Two discretionary veto points.
- CommunityProtect Franklin Township + Civic League. 2,400+ petition signatures by withdrawal.
- ComparablesAg-to-commercial + flood overlay + remonstrance + full-council veto path = extreme denial-risk profile.
- ReportEXTREME DENIAL RISK. Withdrawal was the rational endgame.
Source record review · data-center vertical
The participants shaping data-center outcomes.
Ratepayer advocates, municipal boards, local counsel, and elected officials recur across the cited data-center case files. The six participants below show how project outcomes are shaped in the public record.
Mayor Matt Gentry
Lebanon, IN · pro
AG Dana Nessel
Michigan · ratepayer
Tamsen Plume
Holland & Knight counsel
Mount Pleasant Village Board
Mount Pleasant, WI · pro
Councilor Michael-Paul Hart
Indianapolis, IN · against
Lori Gwizdala
Green Charter Twp, MI · against
Open any case file for the source records, participant role, and method note behind the weighting.
2026–2027 Outlook
The seven pressures reshaping data center entitlements.
Every pressure below is documented in real case files and public records. This is what teams need to screen before deep diligence begins.
Restriction case files and Federal actions cited sit behind each one — moratoriums, settlements, and agency records traced to the primary source.
Worked examples · Cited precedents
Worked examples from the evidence library. The fights serious teams study before they repeat them.
A handful of the denials, withdrawals, moratoriums, and conditioned approvals already turned into cited case files. Each one shows where the real risk lived and how it surfaced in the public record.
How teams use it
How data center teams use RealClear.
Five steps from candidate site to a cited site memo your team can use before deep diligence.
Address, parcel, or coordinates
Start with a property candidate. RealClear prepares a cited read of the jurisdiction, zoning district, and applicable overlays before the first outside call is made.
Zoning and pathway read
RealClear reads the governing code and maps whether the use is permitted, conditional, rezoning-driven, or politically exposed.
Power adjacency vs. availability
Flags what the public record can support about service territory, load pressure, queue posture, substation timing, water exposure, and which utility questions still need professional confirmation.
Community and governing-body record
Profiles boards, officials, repeat opposition arguments, and local political pressure before outreach strategy begins.
Comparable outcomes
Approved, denied, withdrawn, litigated, or conditioned. Your team sees the precedent landscape before it spends deeper budget.
Bring us the site before the surprises start.
Power, water, noise, zoning, and politics do not wait for the filing. Know what kind of fight it is before budget compounds. Three fields: where, what, how big. The deliverable is a cited site memo: public-record findings are cited; utility commitments and consultant conclusions stay as professional questions until confirmed.
The review queue targets a delivery window confirmed at acceptance of the completed property submission. Complex or thin-record sites can take longer.
Cited site memo · records your team can inspect