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The Almighty Buck Technology

Data Center Developer Offers $10,000 Checks To Nearby Households (tomshardware.com) 125

Posted by BeauHD from the dangled-like-a-carrot dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Tom's Hardware: NorthPoint Development wants to build a data center on 1,300 acres in the Pocono foothills, near Hazle Township, Pennsylvania. As well as seeking to charm the local government with various funding packages, it has proposed paying checks of $10,000 per household. Despite the Pennsylvania town's median income of $60,000, the offer isn't being warmly welcomed by locals, reports the Wall Street Journal. Those interviewed were widely against the data center development plans and cited several reasons for being averse to accepting the payout. The major concerns regarded potential impacts on property values, the specter of noise pollution, and a distrust of both the AI moguls and local government representatives.

Offer letters began to be received by Hazle Township back in June. The WSJ recently talked to several residents about NorthPoint's $10,000 offer. While some say the $10,000 would be handy, it couldn't find many residents who were "eager to welcome the data center for the payout," in the journal's words. [...] Traditionally, developers have offered towns and cities packages worth tens of millions, including funding for local services. But direct cash payments to residents represent a new phase of their charm offensive, the WSJ indicates. Perhaps the idea for the direct payments to residents came after "a raucous public meeting last year, where angry locals asked what they had to gain by supporting the data center," ponders the source.

The locals won't just get the direct payout, though. Other funds up to $120 million over the next 15 years have been dangled like a carrot for community and local services investments -- improved schools, emergency services, and so on. Meanwhile, Hazle Township's government already rejected the data center project on zoning grounds last year, and it has enacted a temporary moratorium on data center construction. Finally, the $10,000 offer to households is simply not enough in many interviewed folks' opinions. Residents could feel insulted by it, regarding the offer as a bribe, concludes the WSJ report.

Data Center Developer Offers $10,000 Checks To Nearby Households More | Reply

Data Center Developer Offers $10,000 Checks To Nearby Households

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  • Underestimated The Cost of A Life (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nightflameauto ( 6607976 ) on Monday September 28, 2026 @04:05PM (#66353836)

    $10k is a little low. Pop a few more zeroes on the end of that and you may actually end up with some takers. Come on, everything's for sale. You just gotta stop lowballing us plebes.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      One time $10K is low. How about $10K per day? I will take that!

    • If they're freely offering $10k, then it's likely they've calculated the true cost to be much higher than that. You don't open a price negotiation by overpaying.

      • If they're freely offering $10k, then it's likely they've calculated the true cost to be much higher than that. You don't open a price negotiation by overpaying.

        Yup. That's negotiation 101 right there. They can afford to *start* the bidding at 10k.

  • It seems like a lot until you think about it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Retired Chemist ( 5039029 ) on Monday September 28, 2026 @04:09PM (#66353842)
    Having a data center in the neighborhood is probably going to depress home prices at least in the immediate future. $10k is not a lot given the cost of housing these days. It is not like a data center is likely to bring much employment or value to the local people long term either.
    • Show me a datacenter "in [a] neighborhood". Where do they go that's near any homes? I see them in industrial parks and on old farms.

      A quick look at a map shows me that there is a lot of land near Hazle that isn't near any homes.

      • As long as it is using your utilities and roads it is in the neighborhood. They would not be offering anything, if they did not think that it would help their case. Unfortunately for them, people do not want them, do not think that they are useful, and most people seem to hate AI, even when they use it.

        • Also as long as they are close enough for you to experience noise pollution, which is the case for some of these AI DCs already

          • You could dangle a mic out your window and have your computer do Noise Cancellation in real-time, and play that through speakers throughout your home.

        • As long as it is using your utilities and roads it is in the neighborhood. They would not be offering anything, if they did not think that it would help their case. Unfortunately for them, people do not want them, do not think that they are useful, and most people seem to hate AI, even when they use it.

          A data center is like a flat windowless office building without people in it, and more computers. ...roads? These are immobile computers. They're offering money because people are showing up to city meetings and crying about them a lot because of stupid shit they read online about not even data centers, something something AI. Nobody is browsing realtor.com looking for data centers in the town. If your house is right up against an industrial/commercial zone, that's the best neighbor you could get among the

          • $10k isn't even enough to go solar+batteries for your home to help insult yourself from the increased electricity prices. Depending on zoning, you should also get your own well and osmosis system in place as well. $100k might cover all that. If there is any kind of noise from this (idk, just saying IF), you'll want to better insulate your home, so all new double pane windows and possibly adding insulation into the walls as well. So really, gonna need at least another 50k, so 150k minimum.

            Personally, I'd tak

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Ksevio ( 865461 )

        Some places they do end up in neighborhoods like this one:
        https://www.google.com/maps/@4... [google.com]

    • They should heat homes with the waste heat. Use the cooling water with a heat pump. Offer that to the locals for free. Well... If climate there needs heating...

      • That means you'd have to install all the hardware to carry the steam or heated water from their DC to your house.
        Not to mention the big question... is their system setup to allow that, or do they have to upgrade the hell out of their water-cooling system to allow for that sorta thing... and, then there's the question of what happens to that waste heat during the warm months.

        There used to be steam pipes running to houses from a central place for heating, but those systems have been torn out (even in the real

  • Puerto Rico (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 28, 2026 @04:13PM (#66353846)

    I say we repurpose Puerto Rico and make it the State of Data Center and put all of the datacenters there. It'll be like practice for putting them in orbit.

  • More Gaslighting (Score:5, Informative)

    by guygo ( 894298 ) on Monday September 28, 2026 @04:25PM (#66353874)

    "Residents could feel insulted by it, regarding the offer as a bribe"
    That's because it IS a bribe! Bribe:(noun) A valuable item or cash given to influence a person's actions or decisions.
    Sorry, but I see no other way to interpret NorthPoint's "offer". Any other attempt to describe it is pure gaslighting.

    • >"That's because it IS a bribe!"

      I came to post the exact same thing. It *is* a bribe. And it is insulting.

      Now, if they had air-tight assurances it would cause no noise, ever, and not affect energy pricing ever, and wouldn't be visible from any residential locations, then maybe it is something I would consider supporting if I were there (with or without the "bribe"). The jobs thing is a joke- sick of hearing about that lie. But it could very much mean more tax revenue, which would be good for many yea

    • The problem isn't that it is a bribe. The problem is that is an insulting amount to try and bribe them with. $150k minimum so you could do all the necessary home upgrades to minimize the negative affects of the data center and it's hunger for resources.

      • Well then, the best answer would be for them to offer to pay directly for upgrades to homes that would help mitigate the effects. Acoustic treatments for instance. And if those complaining were honest, they'd shake hands and get it done.

        But most wouldn't use the payout for that. The assumption is that they can be bribed. Which is fine. Absent any legal issues, there's nothing inherently wrong with a bribe. The question then becomes what the cost is to buy off the complainer, not what it costs to enhance the

    • Technically it's compensation for a loss. But it's such a small amount while having an immediate impact it works more like a bribe. But since they could actually lose money long-term by taking it, it's only a bribe because people are shortsighted and see it that way.

  • Required (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by ThurstonMoore ( 605470 )

    They should be required to install solar for residents where appropriate.

  • Pay so much in property taxes that nobody else has to.

  • This seems sad, but familiar. (Score:5, Funny)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Monday September 28, 2026 @04:48PM (#66353922)

    Data Center Developer Offers $10,000 Checks To Nearby Households

    Seems like some businesses and politicians can only offer "bribes" instead of things people actually want/need.

    But hey, these homeowners can add this to their $5,000 DOGE and $2,000 tariff refunds -- oh, wait ...

    .... and the $5,000 midterm "reward" if republicans win the House and Senate -- [holding my breath... getting dizzy... :-) ].

  • Not for AI (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Monday September 28, 2026 @05:05PM (#66353950)

    These data centers are not being built solely for AI. The real push behind them is to store every damn thing about you. Think Flock on steroids. These leech tech companies need to be put to heel now both through legislation and the public outright rejecting them. The cloud is your enemy people.

    • That's going to be the big use case for AI very soon if it isn't already. Companies have been gathering massive amounts of information on people for decades to package and resell. But AI actually makes it easier to sift through that massive amount of data and make use of it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by allo ( 1728082 )

      So you think that needs a data center in your neighborhood? Flock and other surveillance including most internet tracking are all running their stuff in data centers and not at the CEOs home computer. Most is probably distributed between AWS and Azure. If you want to limit data centers to limit how much data can be stored on the cloud, you probably end up with Flock & co. outbidding small business owners when they are competing for now limited cloud offers. You don't think these companies say "Oh, no st

  • Good! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Monday September 28, 2026 @05:32PM (#66354008)

    Those interviewed were widely against the data center development plans and cited several reasons for being averse to accepting the payout.

    I'm glad that people are paying attention and pushing back. From what I've heard so far, the misery that big data centres inflict on local residents would be worth payments at least a couple of orders higher than what's being offered here.

    As for paying per household, fuck that noise - double entendre intended. Every resident, regardless of age, should receive a big payment.

    Oh, what's that you say? That would make the data centre too expensive to build? Too bad, so sad, oh well...

    • I'd say every house, condo and apartment building (regardless of who owns them) should be provided double pane windows and sliding glass doors. This should help with the noise factor quite a bit. If electricity is going to become a major issue, each home, condo, etc, needs to be provided enough solar and batteries to more or less cover their current needs.

      If the water is getting contaminated, they should provide every residence a reverse osmosis system that works at the the entry to the home and not just fo

      • RO wastes water. A really efficient rig only wastes about (side note, why the fuck does Google always think I'm trying to write "Scott" for "about"? Talk about a failure of statistical analysis) 8 gallons for every gallon produced... Not a big deal for most households for drinking water, and it can still go to the garden, but a big problem for a whole house system.

  • While the AI companies are punching people in the face, these same people being punched are still behaving like they are interacting with a rational actor. It's time to stop believing that saying, "Please, Stop!" will have any useful effect. If more people said, "Kill Sam Altman!" I think we would see more social progress on this devil.
  • Any household accepting the $10K, what are they agreeing to do or not do?
  • What's the catch to the $10k.... Hazle Township's government already rejected the data center project on zoning grounds last year, and it has enacted a temporary moratorium on data center construction. Bravo !!!
  • 1) Cancers through strong LF EMF radiations 2) Brain Cancers through wifi or RF repeater radiation 3) Higher electricity and water bills 4) Loss of birdlife, increase in rats and vermin 5) Microplastics in water supply 6) They throw out heat, bad in summer 7) Potential target in any war 8) There are more benefits

  • Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying, "I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

    I think it has become more clear by now to the world powers that their militaries need to run on AI or be left in the ensuing dust. Same goes for economic activity during peacetime, of course.

    Which leads to the realization that this will make data centers a prime target for bombing.

    Yet more reason to not want to live close to one. Yeah, 10K USD

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