30-Day Window: Hartley Pushes Back as Tina Clay Tries to Stop Data Center-Linked Vote
The short version: Jackson's council pushed through a WMIW zoning vote tied to a 230-acre Forest Avenue data center despite a councilwoman's objections and unanswered NDA questions.
Our Take
Credit to Make It Make Sense Jackson for surfacing something that keeps happening in this buildout: a procedural vote moves forward even after an elected official flags that the paperwork trail — in this case a company called WMIW, LLC — connects back to a much bigger 230-acre data center rezoning. Councilwoman Tina Clay asked for a pause. The council said no and voted anyway. That's the pattern watchdogs need to track: not just what gets approved, but what gets waved through before residents fully understand who's on the other side of the table.
The NDA question raised in this video is the one that should worry every Jackson resident, not just Ward 2. If elected officials or administration staff signed nondisclosure agreements tied to a data center project, that's public trust on the line before a single watt of power or gallon of water gets negotiated. Secrecy at the zoning stage almost always means the leverage was given away before the public even knew there was a deal.
This is exactly why we track these fights address by address — because a 230-acre rezoning today is a permanent claim on land, power capacity, and local water tomorrow, and 30-day windows are how these things get locked in before anyone notices. Check the map to see what's already been approved near you, and if Jackson is on your radar, our take-action page has steps for pushing your own council to answer the NDA question in public, not behind closed doors.
This is GridWatch the USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Make it Make Sense Jackson, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.