20 Markets. Four Dimensions. Public Records Behind Every Score.
RealClear reviewed active data-center applications, moratorium bills, council votes, opposition filings, water disclosures, and utility interconnection queues across 20 U.S. markets — and scored each market for triage. This is market-level triage, not a parcel-specific site score. Data Center Watch counted at least 75 data-center projects worth roughly $130 billion blocked or delayed by local opposition in Q1 2026 alone; this index turns that market signal into a sourced, scored view. The gap between the lowest score (2) and the highest (88) is the difference between a court injunction and a short administrative permit path.
Use the index to decide where portfolio attention belongs; use the cited site memo to decide whether a specific site deserves LOI, PSA, DD, counsel, utility, and consultant spend.
- All 10 Hardest markets have a Worsening trajectory. Not one is stabilizing.
- The 80-point spread between the hardest and clearest markets represents years of calendar exposure and a materially different first-pass diligence posture.
- Water is the new opposition vector. 4 of the 10 Hardest markets face water-driven challenges — San Marcos, Oregon OH, Nobles County, and Google Palo.
- Two markets — Pryor, Oklahoma and Storey County, Nevada — operate under regulatory structures that avoid much of the standard entitlement friction. Their scores (88 and 86) are not anomalies; they are engineered outcomes.
- Only one market in the entire index shows an Improving trajectory: Temple, Texas. Every other market is Stable or Worsening.
Twenty markets, plotted where they sit.
Red is the hardest ten; green the clearest. Every dot opens the market's scored analysis.
20 markets, one view
Click a dot to jump to the analysis below
Ten markets where the calendar dies. All ten are getting worse.
Moratoriums, organized opposition, hostile boards, active litigation. Every market on this list has a Worsening trajectory. Know the fight before you commit capital.
DeKalb County shut the door and locked it.
NAMED IN THE RECORD · Commissioner Nicole Massiah — DeKalb County Commissioner (Opposed)
The Edwards Aquifer hit record lows.
NAMED IN THE RECORD · Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra — County Judge (Opposed)
A circuit court judge declared the rezonings void ab initio.
NAMED IN THE RECORD · Supervisor Bob Weir — Gainesville District Supervisor (deceased) (Opposed)
Google assembled 467 acres of Indiana farmland through a shell company called Deep Meadow Ventures.
NAMED IN THE RECORD · Michael-Paul Hart — City-County Councilor, District 20 (Opposed)
Data centers are categorically prohibited in Nobles County's agricultural zones.
NAMED IN THE RECORD · Planning Commissioner Jay Clarke — Planning Commissioner (Opposed)
The residents of Oregon, Ohio did something rare: they turned a data center fight into a mayoral election.
NAMED IN THE RECORD · Mayor Steven Salander — Mayor (elected November 2025) (Opposed)
St.
NAMED IN THE RECORD · Armory Innovation District Developers — Developer group (Supported)
King George County approved Amazon's rezoning, then elected a new Board of Supervisors that canceled the performance agreement, initiated a downzoning of 893 acres back to agricultural, and told Amazon's team to — according to the public record — "go to hell." The BZA denied vested rights 4-0.
NAMED IN THE RECORD · T.C. Collins — Board Chair (2024) (Opposed)
Google spent months negotiating with Linn County.
NAMED IN THE RECORD · Supervisor Sami Scheetz — Linn County Supervisor (Opposed)
Santa Clara has a data center problem that money cannot solve: the grid is full.
NAMED IN THE RECORD · Planning Commissioner Priya Cherukuru — Planning Commissioner (Opposed)
Ten markets where the path is clearest. Earned, not guaranteed.
Proven regulatory frameworks, supportive local government, and infrastructure that actually exists. The evidence favors approval. Use it as context before choosing the one property that needs a cited memo.
Google has expanded at MidAmerica Industrial Park seven times since 2011 without a single documented opposition hearing.
A Development Agreement locked in since February 2000 — before the iPhone, before cloud computing, before anyone imagined what a hyperscale data center would be.
Abilene annexed 800 acres, wrote a dedicated Data Building Code, created a DC-specific utility tariff, approved a 1,375-acre industrial park unanimously, and the state legislature rejected an attempt to repeal data center tax exemptions by a 6-3 vote.
Sarpy County did something almost no jurisdiction has done: it put "Data Centers" in the zoning code by name.
Google has operated in Clarksville since 2019.
Wyoming has a dedicated Data Building Code, DC-specific utility tariffs, and a legislature that rejected an attempt to repeal data center tax exemptions by 6-3.
Eighty miles from Franklin Township — where Google withdrew under community pressure — Meta broke ground on a $10B campus inside the LEAP Innovation District on February 11, 2026.
Google has been in Council Bluffs for 18 years.
Fifteen data centers on 1,500 acres in under a decade.
Temple is the only market in the entire index with an Improving trajectory.
The index is the triage step. Site screening is the next one.
A development pipeline can use the Risk Index as market context, the same way an acquisition memo uses comparables. The paid engagement remains one site-specific cited memo.
Compare the market in front of you with the index. The hardest 10 make the downside explicit — calendar slip, counsel spend, and political risk. The clearest 10 show the inverse: faster path, cleaner record, lower variance.
Choose the one property that needs deeper work. Market scores provide context; the cited property memo does the site-specific research before counsel reads page one of the UDO.
Every market score sources to the public record. When IC asks why this site and not that one, the answer is in the index — not gut feel. Same standard your counsel uses on page one of any underwriting memo.
Where the index ends. Where the site memo begins.
The index scores 20 markets. The cited site memo scores one site: zoning posture, approval pathway, community posture, comparable outcomes, material constraints, known unknowns, and next professional questions. Use the index to choose which sites deserve a site-specific site memo. Show us the parcel. We've already seen the playbook.
Four dimensions. Weighted by what kills projects.
Claims trace to primary sources. Every market score breaks down into evidence you can verify. Methodology open, weights published, caveats listed. The site memo uses a different, parcel-specific scoring frame.
Read the research notes →Regulatory Risk
30 ptsMeasures zoning classification, approval pathway type (by-right, CUP, rezoning), moratorium status, and regulatory trajectory. Higher scores indicate clearer regulatory paths.
Infrastructure Readiness
25 ptsMeasures utility capacity, grid interconnection availability, water supply adequacy, and infrastructure investment commitments. Higher scores indicate better infrastructure readiness.
Opposition Density
25 ptsMeasures organized opposition groups, petition scale, public hearing attendance, political consequences (elections, recalls), and legal challenges. Higher scores indicate less opposition.
Approval Timeline
20 ptsMeasures historical approval durations, number of sequential approval steps, legal challenges affecting timeline, and demonstrated fast-track capabilities. Higher scores indicate faster approvals.
Score interpretation
Weight rationale
Regulatory Risk and Infrastructure Readiness kill projects. Opposition slows them but also drives regulatory change. Approval Timeline is partly downstream of the other three.
- Scores reflect entitlement risk as of Q1 2026. Markets change rapidly.
- A clear entitlement path does not guarantee project success.
- Infrastructure delivery timelines are separate from entitlement risk.
- This index is source-cited with human review. Verify independently.
What the data shows
10 of 10
Hardest worsening
Every Hardest market has a Worsening trajectory. Not one is stabilizing.
$130B
Blocked or delayed, Q1 2026 (Data Center Watch)
Data Center Watch counted at least 75 data-center projects worth roughly $130 billion blocked or delayed by local opposition in Q1 2026 alone — the backdrop this 20-market index scores against.
28pt
Score gap
Between hardest and clearest. The difference between a contested political path and a clearer administrative path.
1
Clearest at risk
Mesa, Arizona scored 72 but the governor is pursuing tax-incentive repeal. Watch this list.
The index scores markets. Brief the parcel.
The index tells you which markets cost the calendar. The cited site memo tells you whether your specific site survives the local fight: zoning posture, approval path, community posture, comparables, material constraints, known unknowns, and next professional questions. Three fields: where, what, and how big. Public-record findings are cited; consultant-needed answers stay consultant-needed.
The site-memo queue targets a delivery window confirmed at acceptance of the completed property submission. Complex or thin-record sites can take longer.
20 markets scored · 15 states · Source-backed claims
