TheVoiceOfJoyce The NashVillager confronting today’s issues with pragmatism. New Data Centers will have new regulations. They’re being agreed to starting June 2 nd to keep the Nashville community safe from high electricity costs, depleted water supplies and air pollution. An elementary school was found to separate aid students from others. The parents are angry and the school will no longer be inadvertently segregated. Nashville cares about the health and wellbeing of their Community.

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media.Donate todayMonday, June 1, 2026Good morning! Emily SinerThere are currently 60 data centers in Tennessee. Thirteen of those, either operational or under construction, are located within Davidson County.

Just last week, the Nashville Business Journal reported an Atlanta-based developer is looking to demolish two buildings and build a new center near the Nashville Zoo.

The city’s mayor told This Is Nashville last week that he’s “keeping an eye” on the situation.

“The biggest three things that are concerns and considerations here tend to be access to electricity, access to water, and then is there any pollution source associated with it,” O’Connell said.

In Memphis, for example, residents living near Elon Musk’s xAI facility, say it is spewing significant amounts of air pollution.

But Nashville has no restrictions in place regarding where such facilities can be built or how they can be operated. Now, the Metro Council is considering changing that.

WHAT TO KNOW

Small, mobile gas turbines operate at an xAI facility in Memphis. Courtesy Steve Jones, Flight by Southwings for SELC The Metro Council will begin considering legislation this week that would restrict large data centers in Nashville.

The zoning bill was introduced by Councilmember Rollin Horton, who also chairs the Planning and Zoning Committee. 

“I looked at what regulations and protections that we have here in Nashville to govern large and hyperscale data centers,” Horton told WPLN’s Cynthia Abrams. “And the answer was zero.”

If passed, the legislation would enact the following rules:

➡️ Data centers over 500,000 square feet, like the xAI facility, would not be permitted in Nashville.

➡️ Centers ranging from 100,000 to 500,000 square feet would require a special exemption from the Board of Zoning Appeals and would be subject to a public hearing.

➡️ Centers of all sizes would have limitations on where they could be built and have to comply with emissions standards, noise pollution requirements and building height limits.

These would not apply to existing data centers, only new ones.

In addition to Horton, 13 other members of the Metro Council have signed onto the legislation. It will be considered on the first of three required readings at the next council meeting on June 2.

The NashVillager is supported by

and Nashville Public Radio members

On today’s episode of the NashVillagerpodcast 
with host Nina Cardona 🎙️ 

Who was in charge here before Tennessee became a state? Becoming the 16th state was just the end of a long road of attempts at self-governance in Tennessee. Plus, the local news for June 1, 2026.

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MORE TO KNOW

  • A recent survey from Middle Tennessee State University found that businesses are more optimistic about the economy than consumers, and both parties are cautious about the future. Michael Peasely, director of the consumer research institute at MTSU, said it’s indicative of a “K-shaped economy,” where high-income business leaders are thriving but consumers are struggling. He says this data not only informs the public on how the state’s economy is perceived, but also helps businesses look at the market from a consumer’s perspective and adjust their strategies — like keeping prices lower. [WPLN]
     
  • Metro Nashville Public Schools is changing its funding policy for its pre-K program. The district had been dividing students based on how they pay: Kids whose families qualify for state aid were put in one classroom, and those whose families paid tuition out of pocket were in another. As a result, students at Inglewood Elementary in East Nashville ended up in racially segregated classrooms. Parents spent the past year trying to get Metro to change its policy. MNPS tells the Nashville Banner the policy only impacted Inglewood Elementary, where the population is both ethnically and socio-economically diverse. A spokesperson for the district said MNPS never intended to segregate its students.
     
  • The Nashville Electric Service has selected the four neighborhoods where it will bury power lines in a $9 million pilot program: a street in Old Hickory, a street in Cane Ridge, two streets in the Thompson Lane area, and a few in the Thunderbird neighborhood of Charlotte Park. Nashville has already buried power lines in some areas downtown and in new construction. Meanwhile, NES says it will not stop its tree trimming around power lines, despite pushback from residents and the Metro Council. [WSMV]
     
  • What should you do when a white nationalist group comes to town? That was the question faced by residents and leaders of Bowling Green and Munfordville, Ky., after Patriot Front demonstrations in their towns in mid-May. Munfordville’s police chief told Kentucky Public Radio that local officials had no advance warningthat the group planned to show up. The demonstrations were peaceful, and police took a hands-off approach. WKU professor Marcus Brooks says direct confrontations or violent pushback can sometimes strengthen these groups’ messaging, and instead recommends peaceful counterdemonstrations and visible community responses without escalating tensions.

FROM HEALTHQ

Throughout the month of June, HealthQ — a collaboration between WPLN News and KFF Health News — is dropping stories about how to navigate the sandwich generation. 

The sandwich generation, for the uninitiated, refers to those of us with children and aging parents. (More than half of adults in their 40s fall into this category, according to Pew.) Many sandwich gens are involved in their parents’ care to some extent, too. And raising kids. And working.

All of this can very quickly reach a tipping point when there’s a caregiving crisis. That is why FMLA exists. The Family and Medical Leave Act guarantees your job for up to 12 weeks to take care of a medical condition for yourself or a close family member. 

But the details are complicated. And the practicalities of asking for time off can feel murky at best. So HealthQ dives into this federal policy to understand the potentials and limitations, and even give you an opening line for starting the conversation with your employer.Boost my HealthQCHECK OUT TICKET GIVEAWAYS

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