Tennessee family working on deal with city to develop a data center on their property

Lukas Salyer is not surprised at the pushback to a proposed data center on his family's southeast Tennessee property, but hopes a new agreement reached with local officials will ease some concerns.

Project River is a private 850-acre, $11.3 billion industrial campus located in Charleston, about 45 minutes east of Chattanooga. The Wright family is proposing a data center powered by a power plant that will use a combination of forest biomass and natural gas, according to information provided by the developers.

It will provide up to 1,500 megawatts of power and will only need electricity from the Tennessee Valley Authority as a backup.

Salyer, a member of the Wright family and president of Wright Industrial Group, said they opted to annex the property into the nearby city of Cleveland because of a planned unit development option that sets legally binding guidelines.

"Instead of falling into a simple zoning of industrial or commercial or whatever the appropriate zoning is, this allows us to work with them to set guidelines for us to say, 'OK, if you are going to develop this project, and this is what you intend to do, here are the rules,'" Salyer said in an interview with The Center Square. "'Here's what you can and can't do.' You see some very, very specific guidelines that I think will give the community some assurance and a method of accountability to ensure that this project is what we want it to be."

The planned unit development has a long list of restrictions. Any direct connection to the nearby Hiwassee River is prohibited. Ninety percent of all process water used will be generated on site, according to the agreement. The data center will not be visible from any roads or nearby property. Noise will be at a maximum of 60 decibels at the property line, and noise will be monitored continuously.

The developers will also fund a new fire and emergency medical services facility near the site.

The tax benefits to the community are unprecedented and could fund schools, teacher salary increases and first responder increases, according to Salyer.

"If you look at the calculations we're talking about, for the city and county both here, we're talking about tens of millions of dollars annually on property value, that's real taxable property," Salyer said. "So when you look at just for the county, for example, the biggest portion of that would go to the general fund, the next biggest portion would go to the school systems."

Another goal is to revitalize the area's logging industry, which was decimated when newsprint sales declined as more people read their news online, Salyer said. The on-site power plant will use a combination of forest timber and natural gas.

"So in a sense, this project kind of brings all that full circle, because the site was originally there to harvest timber for the paper industry and now, effectively, the site would be used to generate power from harvested timber for the digital age, which I think is pretty neat," Salyer said.

Another restriction in the planned development unit is that logging trucks are prohibited from using city streets or county roads.

But hundreds have shown up at community meetings, and most oppose the project. A Facebook page called "Reject Project River" has 569 members as of Tuesday.

Data centers are a source of contention across the state and the country, not just in Bradley County.

In Nashville, a battle is ongoing between the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, and Atlanta-based D.C. Blox, which is proposing a data center near the Nashville Zoo. The conflict has spilled over to the courts.

D.C. Blox is suing the government, saying Metro officials are refusing to process the company's permits in what it calls in court documents a "targeted attack" that violates federal constitutional protections. The case is still pending.

A recent Beacon Poll shows Tennesseans are concerned about the effects of data centers.

Most respondents (24%) were most concerned about data centers' effect on electricity costs, 19% about water and other environmental impacts, and 13% about the health and safety impacts on nearby communities.

When asked what he would say to someone opposed to the project, Salyer said, "Consider that the city of Cleveland is doing absolutely everything they can to review this. And ultimately, I believe they will make the best decision that's in the best interest of everyone. I would also tell you that I'm a resident here and I live here. I don't have any intentions of being involved with something I don't think is going to be a benefit to the community because I have to live with it too."

The city of Cleveland expects a final draft of the planned unit development to be ready on Friday. No action is expected until October, city officials said in a release.