Near other data centers
What it's like to live next to a data center.
People living beside data centers across the country describe how it has changed their lives. Most of those sites are smaller than PAX-1.
New here? PAX-1 is a $15 billion, 16-building data center campus going up near Carlisle. Start with the basics or read the FAQ
Across the country
We looked at 30 data centers across 19 different states.#
Aurora, Illinois
“It was like there was a helicopter on our roof.”
Laura Evans, March 2026
CyrusOne: 16 acres, running. PAX-1 could hold 43 sites this size.
Read the full accountLancaster, Ohio
“We can't open our windows at night to sleep.”
David Holley, October 2026
Google: 121.5 acres, running. PAX-1 could hold 5 sites this size.
Read the full accountFayetteville, Georgia
“This was our retirement.”
Jean Marschall, March 2026
QTS: 615 acres, running. About the size of PAX-1.
Read the full accountSalem Township, Pennsylvania
“Who would want to live here?”
Kenneth Price, October 2026
Amazon: 1,062 acres, being built. Bigger than PAX-1.
Read the full accountMiddlesex Township, Pennsylvania
And here, beside our homes: PAX-1.
694 acres, with 16 buildings, 1.35 gigawatts and at least 582 diesel generators.
Running
Markley
Lowell, Massachusetts
Markley: 14 acres, one building with 27 diesel generators
PAX-1 could hold 49 sites this size
“It's like just putting a jet engine next to you in bed.”
Jake Fortes, June 2026
Read the full accountHow far it reaches
“The farther away a data center is from residential areas, the less likely it is to affect nearby residents.”#
Virginia's legislative auditors, December 2024
How far each resident lives from the data center they describe, as they or their reporters put it, beside how close our homes sit to PAX-1.
80 feet
PAX-1The nearest home to its property line
84 feet
97 feet
150 feet
200 feet
600 feet
1,000 feet
PAX-1260 homes within 1,000 feet of its property line
1,100 feet
PAX-1The nearest to its buildings that the developer's noise study modeled a home
A quarter mile
- Patricia Shepard, Covington, Georgia, on construction
- Tina Shepard, Covington, Georgia, on wells and water
PAX-1454 homes within a quarter mile
Half a mile
3,800 feet
PAX-1The farthest from its buildings that the developer's noise study modeled a home
Three quarters of a mile
A mile
- Beth Kane, near Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, on the noise
- Brian Schue, Sturtevant, Wisconsin, on the noise
PAX-11,333 homes within a mile
Check our math on the homesRead what it says about homes farther out
It doesn't happen everywhere. Virginia's auditors found that at least 15 of the state's running data centers, about one in ten, appear to have made noise that nearby residents regard as a problem. Near Novva's 100-acre campus in West Jordan, Utah, a retiree several hundred feet away says “it doesn't bother me that bad,” and DeKalb, Illinois, says it hasn't had noise complaints from homes about a mile from Meta's campus.
Virginia on distanceFOX 13 on West JordanNPR Illinois on DeKalb
The hum#
Residents describe a sound that runs day and night, heard from next door to a mile away.
Lowell, Massachusetts
“It's like just putting a jet engine next to you in bed.”
Markley: 14 acres, one building with 27 diesel generators
PAX-1 could hold 49 sites this size
Newsweek on life next doorGBH on the pauseBoston.com on Lowell
Virginia's legislative auditors talked with residents near data centers that drew noise complaints. “A common theme was poorer quality of life, with some residents avoiding their decks and yards because the sound is louder outdoors.”
Great Oak, Virginia
“It's beyond frustrating that I can't protect my children.”
Carlos Yanes, 2025
About 600 feet from Amazon's data centers.
Residents called the police over the noise in 2022. In 2025, after Amazon's fixes, the Prince William Times found the neighborhood still “plagued by a low-frequency roar.”
Amazon: 83 acres, four data centers
PAX-1 could hold 8 sites this size
Prince William Times on Great Oak in 2025Prince William Times on Amazon's 2023 fixThe county's parcel record
Loudoun County, Virginia
“It's like 150 feet away and just constant noise.”
A resident of Statesboro Place, September 2026
About 150 feet from the nearest data center.
Amazon and Microsoft: 121.5 acres, seven buildings
PAX-1 could hold 5 sites this size
Fox News on Statesboro PlaceAmazon's first parcelAmazon's second parcelMicrosoft's parcel
Lancaster, Ohio
“We didn't move close to the data center; it moved close to us and we've had to live with the consequences of that.”
David Holley, October 2026
Beside Google's campus, across the Lancaster city line.
Google says it is installing landscape barriers around the site as a visual and acoustic barrier. Because the campus is inside Lancaster's city limits, residents say the township can't do anything.
Google: 121.5 acres
PAX-1 could hold 5 sites this size
NBC4 on LancasterWatch NBC4's reportThe county auditor's record
West Jordan, Utah
“They're really loud. (It's) about the sound of about 10 lawn mowers out going in the neighborhood at the same time.”
Tracy Bell, July 2026
Just down the street from Aligned's campus.
Aligned says the exhausts are backup generators that sit mostly idle outside brief tests and emergencies. A KSL meter read 70 decibels about a block away.
Aligned: 55 acres
PAX-1 could hold 12 sites this size
Aurora, Illinois
“The noise doesn't drop down and get stopped. The noise radiates from above.”
Bryan Castro, February 2026
Behind CyrusOne's campus, on the sound walls built there.
CyrusOne: 16 acres, three data centers
PAX-1 could hold 43 sites this size
Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin
“It makes you anxious to have that continual tone going.”
Christopher Pierangeli, April 2026
About three quarters of a mile from Microsoft's first building.
Microsoft: 315 acres, three buildings
PAX-1 could hold 2 sites this size
Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin
“We've got box fans running in order to cover the sound at night.”
Beth Kane, April 2026
About a mile from Microsoft's campus.
Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin
“Well, how big it was kind of shocked everybody, and then the noise started.”
Brian Schue, July 2026
Around a mile from Microsoft's first data center.
Forest City, North Carolina
“When you couldn't sleep at night without earplugs in, you know that's a problem.”
Tommy Doggett, October 2026
Near Meta's data center, on the years after it opened, before fixes quieted it.
Facebook added sound-absorbing panels and trees in 2015, and residents say it's quiet now.
Meta: 153 acres, 56 diesel generators
PAX-1 could hold 4 sites this size
WLOS on Forest CityThe county's sale to FacebookThe county's parcel map
Building it#
Before a data center runs, it's built. Residents describe blasting, shaking and trucks, some days around the clock.
Point Pleasant, West Virginia
“Our house just shakes and vibrates all day. You can hear toilet seat just rattling on the toilet. You'll see the trash can go across the floor.”
The same story reports that a month's worth of rain in one weekend overwhelmed the site's erosion controls and flooded homes.
Nscale: 2,200 acres
About 3 times the size of PAX-1
WCHS on the shaking housesWatch WCHS's reportWCHS on Point Pleasant
Data center construction “takes a long time and is disruptive to residential areas,” Virginia's auditors found. A large site “could take as long as seven years to fully complete.”
Henrico County, Virginia
“I don't think you have a right to vibrate somebody's house. I don't care what you're doing.”
Mark Davis, October 2026
Across Elko Road from QTS's construction, his home for more than two decades.
Henrico County traced the shaking to the “construction of rammed aggregate piers” that will hold up the buildings. QTS offered to arrange an inspection of his home, and the county says that once the work is done it will pay for a structural engineer if QTS won't.
QTS: 314 acres, up to 10 data centers planned
PAX-1 could hold 2 sites this size
WTVR on HenricoHenrico County's parcel dataBizSense on QTS's land
Covington, Georgia
“We have been basically given the runaround. … I was more or less told, use your homeowner's insurance.”
Patricia Shepard, June 2025
A quarter mile from Amazon's site, after a blast brought down the ceiling, by the family's account.
Blasting for Amazon's 300-acre site cracked the ceiling and then brought it down, by the family's account. The city said the blasting followed federal and state law, and no one has established the cause.
Amazon: 300 acres
PAX-1 could hold 2 sites this size
Salem Township, Pennsylvania
“On Sundays, it's kind of quiet … Monday's right around the corner and it all starts again.”
Kenneth Price, October 2026
In the township around Amazon's campus; PennLive reports he hasn't opened a window in six years.
He says the dust comes from the campus, which Talen Energy began building before Amazon bought it in 2024. The boarded-up homes belonged to families who sold to data center developers, PennLive reports.
Amazon: 1,062 acres, 20 data centers planned
Bigger than PAX-1
Port Washington, Wisconsin
“The beep, beep, beep of backing up trucks 24 hours a day.”
Kim Tydrick, February 2026
About three quarters of a mile from Vantage's construction site.
Vantage: 672 acres, four buildings
About the size of PAX-1
Saline Township, Michigan
“There have to be hundreds a day.”
Larry Osterling, March 2026
On the truck route through town, a few miles from the site.
Oracle and OpenAI: 575 acres, three compute buildings planned
PAX-1 is bigger
Conover, North Carolina
“You work all day, and you come home, and you can't even get three hours of peace and quiet.”
Charcie Chavis, June 2026
Behind Microsoft's cleared site.
Microsoft: 221 acres
PAX-1 could hold 3 sites this size
The lights#
Residents describe lights that shine into their windows at night and blot out the stars.
Abilene, Texas
“You don't need to turn the lights on to walk around the house at night because there's so many lights.”
He bought land zoned for homes before the land to his north was rezoned. The campus has its own gas power plant.
OpenAI's Stargate: 777.6 acres, eight buildings
About the size of PAX-1
KXAN on AbileneTaylor County's appraisal recordCrusoe's announcement
“Many data center sites are encompassed by security fences and deploy bright security lighting,” Virginia's auditors found.
York County, South Carolina
“At 4:30 a.m., you can see the light start to click on and it's blinding.”
Stacy Armstrong, February 2026
Beside QTS's site, where construction “has started in her backyard,” WBTV reports.
York County allows construction from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday. QTS has said it will comply with the county's noise and zoning rules.
QTS: 396.9 acres, nine buildings planned
PAX-1 is bigger
WBTV on York CountyPost and Courier on York CountyYork County's parcel recordQTS's York page
Fayetteville, Georgia
“We're under interrogation every night.”
Joe Marschall, March 2026
Next door to QTS's campus, in the home he and his wife moved to more than 25 years ago.
QTS says it turned off or moved some of its lights and had Georgia Power turn off the lights at a nearby substation. The Marschalls say lights still shine into their living room.
QTS: 615 acres, 16 buildings planned
About the size of PAX-1
CBS News Atlanta on FayettevilleWatch CBS News Atlanta's reportThe state's regional-impact filingThe AJC on the opening
Phoenix, Arizona
“At 3:30 in the morning, the folks right there backing up to 48th Street, you know, they've got lights coming in their windows and noise coming up and children waking up frightened.”
Craig Evans, August 2026
A few hundred feet from Menlo Digital's campus under construction.
Menlo Digital: 38 acres, five buildings
PAX-1 could hold 18 sites this size
Port Washington, Wisconsin
“Right now it's really bright. We call it the land of the midnight sun. You can't see the stars anymore.”
Amanda Mueller, February 2026
Half a mile from Vantage's construction site.
She spoke at a panel held by Great Lakes Neighbors United, the group leading opposition to the project.
Vantage: 672 acres, four buildings
About the size of PAX-1
WISN on the panelWatch WISN's reportOzaukee Press on the nightsVantage on Port Washington
San Jose, California
“We're not anti-data center at all, it's more the noise and the lights that are bothering us.”
Denisa and Jay Filichia, September 2026
Backyard facing several data centers along Great Oaks Boulevard.
NBC Bay Area described a low, constant hum and bright lights reaching their backyards, louder when temperatures rise.
The generators#
Residents describe diesel backup generators running for hours, and sometimes for days.
Aurora, Illinois
“Cyrus had to run their generators three days in a row, 24 hours. It was nonstop noise.”
CyrusOne's own notices confirm a transformer failure in April 2025 and about a dozen announced generator runs since, besides the monthly tests.
CyrusOne: 16 acres, three data centers
PAX-1 could hold 43 sites this size
FOX 32 on AuroraCyrusOne's generator noticesWatch ABC News's reportCyrusOne on its Aurora campus
Virginia's auditors found that backup generators rarely run for long and are unlikely to harm the region's air, but that “local air quality impacts are harder to assess,” because no other kind of development puts nearly as many generators on one site.
Aurora, Illinois
“It went on for 3-4 days uninterrupted, very loud. You couldn't have a conversation inside your house.”
Mary Castro, March 2026
Behind CyrusOne's campus.
Denver, Colorado
“It sounds like the roar of an engine, and it just keeps going.”
Jessica Owens-Neckien, July 2026
Less than a block from CoreSite's building, during a generator test.
CoreSite's permit limits each engine's testing to 25 hours a year, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., with emergencies allowed any time.
CoreSite: 15.1 acres, one building with 14 diesel generators
PAX-1 could hold 45 sites this size
Lisle, Illinois
“It's super loud.”
Mark Hedrick, August 2026
Across the street from CSquare's data center, as it ran temporary diesel generators.
Residents' emails to the village complained about the noise, smell and black smoke from the generators.
CSquare: nine permanent backup generators. PAX-1: 16 buildings, 1.35 gigawatts and at least 582 diesel generators.
Water and wells#
Residents describe wells that turned muddy or slowed after construction began nearby, and runoff that turned a pond red.
Louisa County, Virginia
“(My well has) made it through four major droughts we've had since the '50s and never had an issue with it.”
Newsom's nuisance suit against Amazon is going forward in federal court. Amazon called the harms “insubstantial.”
Amazon: 374 acres, ten buildings planned
PAX-1 is bigger
Covington, Georgia
“Well is what I'm concerned about. … That the dynamite has done something and the well is not producing like it was.”
Tina Shepard, June 2025
Next door, a quarter mile from Amazon's site.
No test of the well has been reported.
Amazon: 300 acres
PAX-1 could hold 2 sites this size
Stanton Springs, Georgia
“Well water, you know, it got muddy when it rained some but not like it does now.”
Victor Chafin, May 2026
Near Meta's data center.
Chafin can't say the problems are due to Meta. A resident across the street says that well is fine, and Meta's study found no impact.
Meta: 416.1 acres, the original campus
PAX-1 is bigger
Stillwater, Oklahoma
“They've been breached about four times now. They just stream the red water back in our pond, which is why it's still just nice and red.”
Doris Al-Harake, May 2025
Across the road from Google's site under construction, on the barriers meant to hold its runoff.
Oklahoma's environmental agency cited the contractor after a May 2025 inspection, and the neighborhood's homeowners association has sued Google.
Google: 386.7 acres, up to six data centers planned
PAX-1 is bigger
KFOR on StillwaterFOX23 on the lawsuitStillwater's project plan
Their homes#
Residents describe homes they can't sell and neighborhoods they're watching disappear.
Point Pleasant, West Virginia
“It's grieving the death of this neighborhood. Our life, what we thought our life was gonna be.”
Nscale: 2,200 acres
About 3 times the size of PAX-1
Virginia's auditors found no evidence yet that data centers have lowered nearby home values. One explanation they heard: Northern Virginia's tight housing market makes buyers less selective.
West Jordan, Utah
“I can't sell my home. Where am I supposed to go?”
Teresa Sorensen, July 2026
Near Aligned's campus.
Aligned: 55 acres
PAX-1 could hold 12 sites this size
Phoenix, Arizona
“Would you like to buy a house 150 feet away from a data center?”
Ana Marshall, July 2026
150 feet from Menlo Digital's campus under construction.
Phoenix has taken about 10 noise complaints since April 2026, each acknowledged and none resolved, Cronkite News reported.
Menlo Digital: 38 acres, five buildings
PAX-1 could hold 18 sites this size
Reston, Virginia
“I was clear to let them understand that the noise, the vibration and the light, the light bill, it rendered our property almost completely useless.”
A resident of Cocquina Drive, October 2026
About 97 feet from a new CoreSite building going up.
CoreSite: 21.7 acres
PAX-1 could hold 31 sites this size
Their bills#
Residents near data centers say their electric bills have gone up.
Aurora, Illinois
“Our electric bills this past year are probably 50% higher than they've been years past.”
Nothing in the story ties his bill to the campus, and CyrusOne says it pays for all the electricity it uses, at rates set under Illinois' rules.
CyrusOne: 16 acres, three data centers
PAX-1 could hold 43 sites this size
In Pennsylvania, the vice chair of the utility commission said in PPL's rate case that large new loads account for 55 percent of the rise in capacity prices, the price of keeping enough power plants ready, and “those costs have begun to flow down to customers' bills.”
Hillsboro, Oregon
“We are already experiencing power surges from the existing data centers and industry not to mention the increase in our electric bills.”
Elizabeth Suryan, February 2026
Near the city's data centers, in written testimony to the Oregon Senate.
No utility record we found ties the surges she describes to the data centers.
Hillsboro's data center district: data centers of about 22 acres on average, the largest about 90. PAX-1: 16 buildings, 1.35 gigawatts and at least 582 diesel generators.
The land and the view#
Fields become building sites, and residents say the trees planted to screen them don't solve it.
Hillsboro, Oregon
“I could grow a lot of things in the footprint of these buildings.”
He signed on as a plaintiff in a lawsuit over data center approvals near Hillsboro. The story doesn't say any of his own land was lost.
Hillsboro's data center district: data centers of about 22 acres on average, the largest about 90. PAX-1: 16 buildings, 1.35 gigawatts and at least 582 diesel generators.
Courthouse News on HillsboroKPTV on Hillsboro's data centers
“Newly planted trees take decades to grow,” Virginia's auditors found, “and the size and proximity of a nearby data center matters more to residents than its architecture.”
Haskell County, Texas
“When I explained I had a crop on it, they said ‘You can finish it, but that's it,’ … ‘You've got to be done in 60 days, and you're out.’”
Cheyenne Buerger, August 2026
About four miles from the site, after his landlord sold 600 acres he rented to a buyer for it.
The story carries no comment from Google or the buyer.
Loudoun County, Virginia
“Trees are not a solution.”
A resident of Statesboro Place, September 2026
Beside the data centers, on the trees planted to screen them.
Amazon and Microsoft: 121.5 acres, seven buildings
PAX-1 could hold 5 sites this size
Fox News on Statesboro PlaceAmazon's first parcelAmazon's second parcelMicrosoft's parcel
The assurances
What they were told#
“Data centers are not required to reduce their noise if they are not violating local ordinances, which has made it difficult to address noise concerns,” Virginia's auditors found.
Fort Wayne, Indiana
“it would only employ 30 to 40 employees, and it wouldn't, like, affect us”
A letter, as Angela Runyon remembers it “Some days there's hundreds of dump trucks, semis, some days it's not as bad. Sometimes they work on the weekends. Sometimes they work through the night.”
Angela Runyon, July 2026Three minutes from Google's data center site. Point Pleasant, West Virginia
“we want to be good neighbors to you”
Nscale, as Jim Pyle remembers it “Well, I had a whole lot of good neighbors already and they're gone.”
Jim Pyle, September 2026In the neighborhood beside Nscale's construction. NBC News reported that Nscale has bought or is offering to buy the neighborhood's 56 homes for more than their market value.
Covington, Georgia
“acting in full compliance with all federal laws regulating dynamite blasting”
A Covington city official, on the construction crews, in 2025 “They ain't going to take the blame for this. … They already told me they are within the legal limit of the law.”
Guy Roos, February 2026Near Amazon's site, where he says the blasts cracked his walls. WSB-TV on the blastingWatch WSB-TV's reportWSB-TV on Covington
Sterling, Virginia
“DEQ has no regulatory authority to stop these actions under current regulations.”
The director of Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality, in an email to residents “I always know when they're running their diesel generators because it irritates my throat and my lungs.”
A homeowner in Sterling, July 2026Beside Vantage's campus. After a power failure in July, Vantage's backup diesels ran for nearly 24 hours.
WJLA on Sterling's generatorsWatch WUSA9's reportRead the public comments
And here
“We changed the ordinance. Unfortunately, there's really nothing the board of supervisors can do to stop this project.”
The overlay they adopted for PAX-1 started as a draft from the developer's attorney.
Who wrote the rulesFund the fight
Lawyers stop bulldozers.
The fight over PAX-1 happens in court, and it runs on briefs, expert witnesses, and filing fees.