The site of a coming data center in southwest Jefferson County.(Roberto Roldan / LPM )As Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg went up to bat at the annual Dainty Festival in Schnitzelburg Monday night, he was met with chants and boos from some onlookers.“Greenberg, Greenberg, you can’t hide. We dem and you take a side,” yelled activists with the group No Data Centers 502.It was the second time this month that protesters confronted the mayor publicly, demanding a meeting to discuss why they want city officials to ban data center construction.At a Planning Commission meeting across town, the sentiment was much the same. Residents told the commission Monday about their concerns for pollution and rising energy costs. Most of the nearly two dozen people that addressed the commission said they didn’t want to see data centers built at all or wanted to see them heavily restricted.The Planning Commission meeting — the first of four public hearings — is being held to get residents’ opinions on the Greenberg administration's proposed zoning rules that will guide future data center construction in Louisville. Data centers are generating intense public criticism across the country, as many local elected officials approve new construction anyway.Melody Sterling, who lives in the South End, expressed frustration that the planning commission approved a data center project on Camp Ground Road near Shively before Louisville got any regulations in place. She said she doesn’t believe the city should allow any data centers to be built, citing noise, pollution and energy usage.“I do not want to live anywhere near a data center of any kind,” Sterling said. “I think that if they have any here, that they should offer a buyback at the assessed value of the house of anybody within five miles.”Sterling questioned why the city’s only hyperscale data center is being built in “one of the poorer parts of Louisville” rather than Prospect, a more affluent area in eastern Jefferson County. The comment drew applause from the audience of about 50 people.The testimony at Monday’s meeting aligned with the feedback residents provided to city planners in previous community meetings and online surveys. In one survey conducted late last year, 81.5% of respondents chose “Nowhere in Jefferson County” when asked where data centers should be allowed to be built.Another survey, which closed earlier this month, was harder to quantify, but many of the comments were negative.City officials say they’ve heard residents’ concerns, particularly around the massive hyperscale data centers feeding the current artificial intelligence boom. But their proposed regulations fall short of an outright ban on all data centers.In June, Greenberg’s administration released a 16-page set of zoning regulations. The proposed rules would ban any data centers larger than 500,000 sq. ft. and place numerous restrictions on ones smaller than that.Among other things, the regulations would require developers to disclose the primary user of the data center, preserve as many trees as possible and meet a long list of energy efficiency standards. Building would also be restricted primarily to industrial areas.City planners added more restrictions last week, pushing data center construction further away from schools and residential areas and limiting regular generator usage to emergencies.Brian Davis, director of the Louisville Metro Office of Planning, said those additional regulations were in response to residents’ concerns.“We want the community to know we listened,” Davis said in a statement. “These significant and important recommended changes reflect the feedback we received from the community and our continued commitment to supporting responsible growth as Louisville welcomes new businesses.” The Louisville Metro Planning Commission listens to residents during a public hearing on data centers on Monday, July 27, 2026.(Roberto Roldan / LPM )Kathy Little, a longtime environmental activist who lives near the hyperscale data center being built on Camp Ground Road, said she thinks the proposed regulations are moving in “the right direction,” but she still has many concerns.“I’m concerned about the noise, first and foremost,” Little said. “Not only the audible but the tonal, the shaking type, the vibration type.”Little asked the Planning Commission to recommend that the Metro Council pause all new data center construction so that residents and city leaders can collect more information about their impact.Lawrence H. Williams, Jr., who said he works in the artificial intelligence industry, was the lone person to speak up in favor of the city’s proposed data center rules. He said he thinks data centers have the power to “change Louisville from being the city that it is today to being a smart city.” He argued the city shouldn’t ban hyperscale facilities.“The data center is about being able to have your devices run, being able to get your information to your phone, being able to get your searches that you want, and things of that nature,” Williams said. “Yet, a hyperscaler … we're talking about the capability of doing research to solve for cancer.”The Planning Commission is expected to take the testimony from these public hearings and incorporate it into a recommendation to Metro Council. That recommendation could be to approve the regulations proposed by the Greenberg administration, amend them or reject them.Metro Council will have the ultimate say on whether to approve the administration’s recommendation or make their own changes.New survey highlights more of the same oppositionAlongside community meetings, the Greenberg administration opened an online survey to ask residents what they think about the proposed regulations.A copy of the survey results obtained by LPM News show residents continuing to ask for an outright ban on data centers or pointing out where they believe the proposed rules are inadequate.“We do not want data centers!!!!!” read one response.“Data centers should be their own entity, meaning existing and new homeowners and businesses should not incur any additional costs because the data center is being built … in their community,” read another.Unlike the previous survey, this one had just one open-ended prompt: “Please provide any ideas and comments that you have regarding Data Centers.” That makes it harder to quantify exactly how many of the responses were for or against data center development.Some of the respondents thanked city officials for their work on the proposed rules.“I think your proposal is excellent,” one person wrote. “In addition to requiring significant distance from schools, residences and day care centers, I would add senior living facilities and hospitals.”Others argued that Louisville and Kentucky need to be innovative in their approach to economic development.One respondent said Louisville has already fallen behind its peer cities and the city should be welcoming data centers.“Why are we so hesitant to do this and what is our alternative?” the respondent wrote. “Have people been downtown lately to see the loss of companies and jobs? Let's think ahead as a community instead of stopping everything.”In all, Louisville Metro received more than 4,100 responses to the second survey. All of them will be incorporated into the Planning Commission record that will be provided to the Metro Council. ...read more read less