from Stop Data Centres NZ

Zeewolde is a farming town of about 23,000 people in the Netherlands. In 2021 its council voted 11 to 8 to rezone 166 hectares of farmland, around 400 acres, so Meta could build the biggest data center in the country.

A lot of residents didn’t want it. They worried about the farmland, about the huge amount of electricity it would take, and about who the land was really for.

So at the next local election they voted for the party that had promised to stop it. It won by a landslide.

Within weeks Meta paused the project. A few months later it cancelled it for good, saying the town was no longer a good match. A Dutch court later struck down the zoning plan too.

No lawsuits won by billionaires. Just neighbors, a ballot box, and farmland that is still farmland.

Would your town do the same?