Despite Overwhelming Public Opposition, Bessemer AL City Council Approves Zoning For Gigantic Data Center [View all]

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The decision is the first major step, following repeated delays, toward the approval of Project Marvel, a $14.4 billion hyperscale data center development set to encompass 700 acres and include 18 buildings totaling 4.5 million square feet. The project has faced consistent, staunch opposition from residents living both within Bessemer city limits and in the rural, unincorporated areas surrounding the proposed development site. Locals have expressed concerns about excessive energy usage, increased utility rates, potential watershed contamination, habitat destruction, noise pollution and years of disruptive construction traffic.

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Before Tuesday’s vote to change Bessemer’s zoning ordinance, light industrial uses included facilities like bus terminals, gas stations with garages and large billboards. Expressly forbidden from light industrial classification are facilities “which are especially detrimental to property or to the health and safety beyond the district by reason of the emission of odor, dust, gas, fumes, smoke, noise, vibration or waste material.”

Residents have argued that commissioners should vote down the allowance of data centers in light industrial zones because the facilities simply don’t fit the definition of light industrial development and aren’t comparable to facilities that are typically permitted under that classification. “This is not light industrial,” Becky Morgan, a resident affected by the project, previously told city officials. The facility’s high power consumption, security needs and sheer footprint should require its zoning in heavy industrial or another, newly created zoning category, she argued.

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Sarah Stokes, an attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, expressed her dismay that residents among the overflow crowd weren’t allowed to speak and were given no explanation from officials as to why. “That’s not the law for the public hearing. You have to be able to be heard,” she said. William Spencer, who owns Spencer Wood Recycling in Bessemer, was also upset by what he viewed as an effort to limit dissent. Spencer said he witnessed a police officer stop a lady in a red shirt “with force” and told her she couldn’t go upstairs to the council meeting to speak. Ultimately, the council voted unanimously to approve the change to the city’s zoning ordinance, making way for data centers of any size and scope to be located in land zoned for light industrial use.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08102025/bessemer-alabama-changes-laws-to-accommodate-data-centers/