A dispute over a proposed data center near the Nashville Zoo has escalated into a federal court battle.
DC Blox, a digital infrastructure company based in Atlanta, sued Metro Nashville on August 11 after the city imposed a temporary pause on data center permits and advanced tougher standards for future developments.
Here's what to know
According to Nashville Scene, a unanimous Metro Council vote on July 21 stopped new data center permits until December 1.
Council members paired the moratorium with stricter rules governing where data centers may be located and how they operate.
DC Blox says those decisions were not routine regulation but a "targeted attack" aimed at its proposed facility near the zoo.
The complaint describes the measures as "part of Metro's relentless efforts to prohibit DC Blox's lawful and vested use of its property as a data center."
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Debate over the zoo-adjacent project had been intensifying, alongside opposition to another proposed data center at Fisk University.
Then, on August 4, the council approved condemnation legislation that, according to Nashville Scene, could let Metro seize the zoo-area site through eminent domain.
After buying the site for $23 million in late July, DC Blox sought declaratory and injunctive relief as well as financial damages with law firm Thompson Burton serving as its legal counsel.
More background
The project's location next to the Nashville Zoo helped turn a permitting matter into a wider public controversy.
DC Blox contends Metro treated its proposal differently from other data center projects in Nashville.
The complaint cites opposition voiced by Mayor Freddie O'Connell and District 26 Councilmember Courtney Johnston, whose district includes the zoo area.
It also points to a June 12 phone call with then-Metro legal director Wally Dietz, who allegedly "stated that Metro would do whatever it could to ensure that the DC Blox Project was not developed," according to the lawsuit.
What's being done?
Metro has already tried to delay or reshape data center development through a series of moves in July and August, including the moratorium and the eminent domain push near the zoo.
The case may clarify the limits on local government action once a company has bought land and begun preparing a project.
DC Blox says Metro's actions run afoul of the Fifth and 14th Amendments and reflect an improper effort to block a lawful use of the property.
According to Nashville Scene, the complaint also says Asurion leased the site and used it as office space and a data center.
DC Blox alleges Metro "used 'every tool' and 'every avenue' it could to deny or delay the project" even though the rules it passed are written to apply to all data centers.
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