On June 22, more than 80 people packed Jackson City Hall for a public hearing on data centers. The Jackson Fire Department turned away about two dozen more, citing capacity limits that some council members said had never been enforced before. Of the 26 people who spoke, exactly one supported bringing a data center to Jackson. He was the lawyer for the company trying to build one.

That company is Saxum Investment Group. It wants to rezone 230 acres near Forest Avenue and Interstate 220, land currently zoned residential, commercial, and light industrial. The site sits within two miles of half a dozen neighborhoods, two schools, a clinic, and a cluster of local businesses. Saxum's attorney, Robert Ireland of Watkins & Eager, told the council his client is not asking officials to ignore residents' concerns. He said the council can write rules that address noise, emissions, water use, and utility burdens.

The council is now doing exactly that. Deputy City Attorney Carrie Johnson told the Planning and Economic Development Committee that her office is drafting a data center ordinance covering location, noise, utility usage, water, and storm drainage. She said she has been using an online database of template ordinances created by Georgia Tech. Council Vice President Vernon Hartley pushed back, submitting a list of about 20 environmental concerns he wants included. He told Johnson he is not sure a template off the internet will give Jackson everything it needs.

The next milestone is July 14. That is the date of the next regular City Council meeting, and Council President Brian Grizzell has said mid-July is tentatively set for another public hearing on the draft ordinance. The council will not vote on the Saxum rezoning until the new regulations are in place. Zoning Administrator Ester Ainsworth said it would not be fair to the applicant or the community to vote without a definitive set of rules.

The path to July 14 has been winding. Grizzell first proposed a six-month moratorium on data centers in April. The council tabled it in May after City Attorney Drew Martin advised that a moratorium is a zoning ordinance and requires a public hearing and proper advertisement. That procedural snag opened the door for Saxum to file its rezoning application. The Planning Board was set to hear it May 27, then June 24. Both times it was postponed at Saxum's request, as the company said it wanted to wait for the city to write its rules.

The June 22 hearing made clear what residents want. Candace Abdul-Tawwab, executive director of Mississippi for a Just World, told the council that data centers are taking advantage of poor, predominantly Black communities across the South. She asked for not just a moratorium but a ban. Wade Brown, president of the Presidential Hills-Natchez Trace Homeowners Association, kept his comments short. He said his neighborhood is not interested in the data center being processed in that area. He acknowledged the money it could bring. 'But money is not always good,' he said.

Residents pointed to Southaven, where xAI built a data center powered by 41 temporary natural gas turbines. Two Southaven residents traveled to Jackson earlier this year to warn the council. One said she would give anything to have had regulations in place before xAI arrived. Another said people in Southaven cannot give their houses away, with prices dropped by $20,000, $40,000, even $50,000.

Ireland told the council that Jackson can avoid Southaven's mistakes. He said the council can simply restrict the use of temporary power sources until a permanent facility has gone through the MDEQ permitting process. He said the council can require noise impact studies during site-plan review and after operations begin. He said the council can set standards ensuring a project's utility demands do not raise costs for residents and small businesses.

The council has not yet released a draft of the ordinance. Grizzell said the process does not end with the June 22 hearing. Another public hearing will be held once a draft is published. The July 14 meeting is the next opportunity for the council to show what it has written.

Jackson now faces a question that cities across Mississippi are wrestling with. Amazon is investing $25 billion in data centers across the state, including in Madison, Warren, and Hinds counties. The PSC has cleared the way for private power plants to serve AI data centers. Developers are circling. The council can write rules that protect the city's water system, its neighborhoods, and its tax base. Or it can let the developers write them first.