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Updated on: June 11, 2026 / 8:21 PM EDT
/ CBS News
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Nashville, Tennessee — Residents packed a city public hearing in Nashville, Tennessee, on Thursday night, looking to stop a nearly 70,000-square-foot data center from being built near the Nashville Zoo, arguing it would expose the animals to noise, fumes and bright lights. The data center would operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, right next to a zoo that is home to more than 3,000 animal species, including the endangered clouded leopard. Country music star and Nashville resident Brad Paisley added his voice to the discourse this week, urging his followers on social media to back an online petition against the project that now has nearly 400,000 signatures. "It is not too late to stop it," Paisley said in a social media video. Nashville's Metro Planning Commission held a public hearing Thursday regarding proposed legislation that would ban the construction of large data centers within a half mile of daycare centers, homes, religious institutions, parks and zoos. "We have to protect, not just animals, but our neighbors, our water supply," one Nashville resident said during the hearing. "What's at stake? I think the health of our animals, and that is our biggest concern," Rich Schwartz, CEO of the Nashville Zoo, told CBS News. "This constant humming noise, the light penetration, it affects photo periods of these animals, it affects their breeding cycles, it affects their stress."
