Data Centers Deserve Scrutiny — But Not Scare Tactics

By TW Shortt, CRS™, CRB™ 
Broker/Manager, REALTY WORLD® Knox Realty Group and Flat Fee Connect, LLC 

Hardin County Fiscal Court is considering a temporary moratorium on rezoning requests and conditional-use permits involving data centers while the Planning Commission studies the issue. The matter appears on the Fiscal Court’s September 22 agenda.  

There is nothing wrong with taking a careful look at a new type of development. Data centers can require substantial electric capacity, and communities should ask tough questions about utilities, roads, noise, water use, neighboring property and who pays for needed infrastructure. The U.S. Department of Energy has acknowledged that growing data-center demand is putting new pressure on the electric grid.  

But legitimate questions are different from scare tactics. 

We have seen this before whenever a major innovative technology arrives. 

When the internet began entering American homes, many people predicted the worst. We were warned that it would become little more than a pipeline for pornography, fraud, and social decay. Those problems certainly exist online, but the internet also became essential to banking, medicine, education, commerce, communications, and every modern business. 

The mistake was not asking questions. The mistake was allowing the worst possible prediction to define the technology. 

We should not make that mistake with data centers. 

These facilities are the physical backbone behind cloud computing, artificial intelligence, digital banking, medical records, streaming and much of modern commerce. 

Kentucky sees the opportunity scale. In July, the Department of Energy announced a planned datacenter and energy project at the Paducah site involving more than $100 billion (about $310 per person in the US) in private investment, with approximately 8,000 construction jobs and 600 permanent jobs projected.  

That does not mean every data center belongs in Hardin County. It means we should evaluate proposals based on facts, not fear. 

But who am I? 

I am just an old real estate broker who has spent four decades watching Hardin County grow, change and occasionally become nervous about the next new thing. I am certainly not a data center engineer. But I know as much about this technology today as the average Hardin County magistrate. 

And that is exactly the point. 

Before the government makes long-term decisions, everyone involved should separate facts from hype. I hope our magistrates ask tough questions, demand reliable answers, and do not allow fear of something unfamiliar to substitute for evidence. 

There may be good reasons to place conditions on a particular project. There may even be locations where one simply does not belong. 

But those decisions should be based on measurable impacts—power, water, noise, roads, taxes, jobs and neighboring property—not generalized predictions about what might go wrong. 

Technology will continue moving forward whether Hardin County participates or not. 

The question is whether we approach it carefully and intelligently—or simply become afraid of it.

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