Jackson MS: 230-Acre Northwest Jackson Data Center Rezoning (Saxum) Heads to June 24 Planning Board Hearing

Saxum Investment Company LLC is seeking to rezone 230 acres (expanded from 190) along Forest Avenue between Medgar Evers Boulevard and I-220 in Northwest Jackson, Mississippi — from residential/commercial/light-industrial to I-2 Industrial — for a data center. The May 27, 2026 Planning Board meeting was postponed at Saxum’s request after dozens of protesters packed the room; the rezoning hearing is now set for the June 24, 2026 Planning Board meeting. Residents of the adjacent Presidential Hills neighborhood cite water demands, noise, and utility-cost concerns. No hyperscaler is named in public filings — Saxum is the developer intermediary — and a June 12 public forum left residents with unresolved questions. The city is simultaneously drafting new data center siting guidelines, opening a potential regulatory window.

This is the neighborhood-level edge of the data-center buildout, where the abstraction of the hyperscaler land rush meets a specific Black-majority Jackson neighborhood already living under a federal water-system consent decree. It sits within the broader 2026 turn toward data-center regulatory oversight (2026-06-22–arizona-illinois-data-center-tax-moratoriums-300-bills-nationally, 2026-06-03–new-york-legislature-passes-statewide-data-center-moratorium-s10642) and against the federal permitting-acceleration posture (2025-07-23–eo-accelerating-federal-permitting-data-center-infrastructure). The June 24 vote determines the fight stage; the identity of the end client behind Saxum, and any Mississippi Power ratepayer cost-shift, remain to be documented.