DC Blox’s plans to build a 24-acre data center right next to the Nashville Zoo could be blocked by a moratorium currently being considered by the Nashville Metropolitan Council Office.

The developer is eyeing a land parcel at 648 Grassmere Park. It is applying for a permit to demolish two existing properties on the parcel, and development plans indicate that the campus will consist of two data center buildings – one would provide 40MW of capacity and the other would provide 10MW – totaling 69,220 sq ft (6,420 sqm) and an approximately 72,000 sq ft (6,689 sqm) substation.

This would be directly northwest of the city’s zoo, which has voiced its opposition to the facility.

"AI Data Centers are being built at an alarming pace, posing possible risks to diverse and vulnerable communities," reads the petition, which has garnered more than 391,000 signatures at the time of writing.

"One simple Google search shows growing concerns about data centers’ environmental and public health impacts nationwide. Data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity and water; straining power grids, depleting natural resources, and damaging our watershed. How are we to know this new data center will not lead to irreversible damage to the animals we exist to protect?

"We cannot afford to find out years from now how this facility has negatively impacted our 1.4 million visitors, our local community, or the 3,000 animals entrusting us with their care. We are calling on the Nashville community to join us in our fight to stop this data center from being built, now."

The zoo has also filed a zoning appeal seeking to overturn the permits that have already been approved for the project.

High-profile American country singer Brad Paisley has also expressed opposition to the data center.

“First of all, they don’t have the power to build this, they don’t have the water. It doesn’t belong there. It would be an enormous monstrosity, an absolute eyesore and detract in every way for not only that zoo, but also that area,” said Paisley in an Instagram reel.

In a statement emailed to DCD, a spokesperson for DC Blox said that the company "has heard and appreciates the concerns that have been raised about our newly proposed data center in Nashville near the zoo.

But they emphasized that the data center "is designed to be a cloud and communications facility needed to handle increasing regional Internet traffic, critical infrastructure that depends on proximity to the people it serves.

"It is not a large AI-factory," referring to a data center used for AI training or inference.

DC Blox's spokesperson added that the company would use a closed-loop or waterless cooling design to conserve water; that it would pay for any new energy infrastructure required; that it would "test and manage noise to locally required levels and will shield light fixtures; and adhere to federal and local environmental regulations."

But the company's plans could be threatened by a temporary moratorium, which passed its first reading on Tuesday.

This would prevent the “acceptance, processing, approval, and issuance of zoning, building, or grading permits” for data centers until November 1, 2026.

The moratorium could be lifted earlier if one of two bills is passed prior to the deadline. BL2026-1391 would add new data center uses to the Nashville Zoning Code and impose stricter planning guidelines, and BL2026-1392 would require certain materials to be restricted in the construction of data centers.

The former would also prevent data centers from being built within at least 100 ft (30m) of a zoo, a residential area, daycares, religious institutions, a community education use, or a park, depending on the size of the proposed facility. A ‘large’ data center, defined as a facility with a maximum capacity between 20MW and 100MW, would have to be at least 2,640 ft (804m) away from the same kind of properties.

DC Blox is based in the US and has facilities in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Indiana, and Georgia, and has cable landing stations in South Carolina and Florida.

It also has a data center in Tennessee, located in Chattanooga.

The company says its footprint totals 470MW and 2.78 million sq ft (258,270 sqm) across 23 facilities.

DC Blox recently added $600 million to its existing debt facility to fund data center projects in the southeastern US.