06/12/2026
Nashville did you know?
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Nashville Zoo is sounding the alarm — and hundreds of thousands of people are listening.
The zoo is fighting a proposed DC BLOX data center that would sit roughly 50 yards from its animals at 648 Grassmere Park in South Nashville. Atlanta-based DC BLOX filed a building permit for a 69,220-square-foot facility, but a geotechnical report suggests the project could balloon into something far bigger: a three-story, 40-megawatt data center with its own substation right next door.
The zoo's worries are hard to wave off. Constant noise, glaring light, and stormwater runoff from a massive industrial build — all of it pressed up against animal habitats. For wildlife that depends on quiet and stable surroundings, that kind of round-the-clock disruption isn't a minor inconvenience. It's a daily stressor with no off switch.
A Change.org petition launched by the zoo has now blown past 330,000 signatures, turning a local zoning fight into a national rallying cry. And country star Brad Paisley threw his weight behind it, calling the proposal an "absolute nightmare scenario" in an Instagram video and urging his fans to sign.
The bigger question keeps coming up: as data centers race to power the AI boom, who decides where they get built — and who pays the price when they land on top of a community treasure? Right now, more than 330,000 people are saying not here, not 50 yards from the animals.
