Nashville Mayor Files Eminent Domain to Block DC Blox Data Center Next to City Zoo

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell filed late-breaking eminent domain condemnation legislation targeting a 23.5-acre site adjacent to the Nashville Zoo where DC Blox holds a $23M purchase contract set to close in early July. Metro Council votes July 7 on whether to even consider the bill — itself a procedural threshold requiring majority support. A separate data-center regulations ordinance (500,000 sq ft / 100 MW caps, strict setbacks from schools, churches, and zoos, 65 dBA noise limits) is on its second of three readings the same night. More than 500,000 petition signatures oppose the project.

The fight combines two resistance tools simultaneously: executive eminent domain as an emergency brake and council-level zoning regulation as a permanent gate — a more aggressive posture than the moratorium approach taken elsewhere in the current datacenter-siting wave (see 2026-07-02–washington-county-md-datacenter-moratorium, 2026-07-02–santa-fe-county-nm-data-center-moratorium-18-months).