The Hallam Village Board voted to approve zoning rights for a data center at Monolith Materials’ Olive Creek facility, capping roughly an hour of public debate over noise and fire safety amid broader concerns about water use that have simmered in the small Nebraska village for months. The decision clears the way for Monolith and its partner, Denver-based Crusoe Technologies, to move forward on a 35-megawatt co-located data center alongside four additional carbon-black production units.
A Vote Months in the Making
The board’s approval came Monday, following discussion among board members, residents and a Crusoe Technologies representative, according to WOWT. The vote builds on a special permit that Crusoe and Monolith signed back in July to get the project started, the station reported. Hallam’s planning commission had already unanimously recommended approval of Monolith’s special-use permit application, according to Nebraska Public Media.
Under state law, a village board must authorize a planning commission to grant conditional uses or special exceptions through a zoning or special ordinance, and the use must be specifically identified in that ordinance before a permit can move forward, according to Nebraska Revised Statute 19-929. The Hallam Village Board typically meets at City Hall on the first Monday of each month to take formal action on items like this one, per the village’s own description of its meeting schedule.
What’s Actually Being Built
The project would add a 35-megawatt data center built from up to 36 modular Crusoe “Spark” units, each roughly the size of a shipping container, the same report from the station’s public-media coverage noted. Monolith has estimated the facility will create about 15 high-paying jobs across 10 acres, and it projects the data center will use approximately 770,000 gallons of water in its first year, including a one-time 500,000-gallon injection, with use expected to be lower after the first year. Crusoe has told Nebraska Public Media that its hyperscale data centers rely on closed-loop water systems, a detail the company has offered in response to water-use concerns raised by residents.
Fire safety and noise were among the chief worries voiced at Monday’s meeting. Steve Buster, a Crusoe Technologies representative, told those gathered that the company has a fire plan in place, though information on when construction will actually begin has yet to be released, per the station’s report.
Part of a Wider Land Rush
Hallam’s data center fight is unfolding alongside separate, larger land deals nearby. An Israeli-based developer, Stark Power, has bought options on more than 1,400 acres outside the village, while a data-center developer has separately secured agreements to purchase about 1,700 acres to the west, according to Omaha.com. That outlet noted the land purchase could set the stage for yet another data-center project as the village and surrounding area grapple with the industry’s expanding footprint.
The friction in Hallam mirrors a national trend. A Gallup survey from March found that seven in 10 Americans oppose building AI data centers in their local area, according to the Nebraska Examiner. That outlet also reported that roughly 4,000 more data centers are planned nationwide on top of an estimated 3,500 to 4,000 already built, and that a proposed 1,000-acre project in Tonganoxie, Kansas drew about 100 opponents to a county planning meeting seeking tighter regulatory scrutiny.
An August Annenberg survey found that 61% of U.S. adults now oppose data-center construction in their area, a 12-percentage-point jump in just four months, with opposition crossing party lines among Democrats, Republicans and independents, according to Nebraska.tv. The same survey found 68% of respondents believe the government has done too little to regulate artificial intelligence, and the station reported that twenty states have already enacted moratoriums or bans on data-center construction while seven more advance restrictive legislation.
For now, Hallam has cleared a key regulatory hurdle, but the timeline for breaking ground remains unknown, and the questions residents raised about water, noise and fire safety will likely keep surfacing as the broader regional debate over data centers continues to intensify.
