Prichard officials and residents packed city hall Wednesday evening for a public forum on a proposed data center project, an event organizers framed as an effort to inform the community rather than push residents toward a particular side of the debate.
District 5 Councilman Roy Smith told attendees that decisions on the project should rest on verified facts rather than rumor. “We keep on moving on hearsay and not the facts,” Smith said, adding that misinformation has fueled much of the uncertainty surrounding the proposal. Smith has said he intends to remain neutral on the underlying question, telling residents his goal is simply to see that “the people get the correct information” before any vote is taken.
The city’s legal team used the session to lay out two paths forward for council members weighing how to respond to the project. One option is a temporary moratorium that would pause new permits and give the city time to consider rezoning the industrial property in question, though city attorneys cautioned that route carries litigation risk. The alternative would allow the development to proceed while the city imposes strict operating conditions. Attorney Moshae Donald-Walker told residents the city could “restrain how they can operate, the distance between a data center and a residential area,” addressing concerns raised about noise, heat and lighting from a facility operating near homes.
Not all of the feedback at the forum ran against the project. Quinten Booker, a Prichard native who works in information technology, spoke in support of the development, pointing to the employment opportunities it could create for young residents. Booker argued a local data center could offer an alternative to the traditional college path, saying it could enable young people to pursue “certifications… right out of high school” without taking on significant student debt.
The Wednesday forum came as the Prichard City Council continued weighing a proposed moratorium on new data center permits, an issue that has generated sustained debate in the city in recent weeks. Council members were expected to discuss the moratorium further, and potentially take it up for a vote, at their meeting the following night.
The data center debate has become one of the more closely watched issues before Prichard’s city government in recent months, with residents, city attorneys and council members weighing competing concerns over economic development, property values and quality of life near the proposed site.